334 Integral Yoga
100 Yoga
16 Poetry
15 Occultism
12 Philosophy
12 Hinduism
10 Mysticism
6 Sufism
1 Psychology
1 Education
323 Sri Aurobindo
55 Sri Ramakrishna
54 Nolini Kanta Gupta
49 The Mother
44 Satprem
19 Swami Vivekananda
18 Swami Krishnananda
17 A B Purani
11 Vyasa
9 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
7 Sri Ramana Maharshi
7 Kabir
7 Aldous Huxley
6 Nirodbaran
6 Aleister Crowley
5 Rabindranath Tagore
5 George Van Vrekhem
4 James George Frazer
2 Ramprasad
2 Mahendranath Gupta
145 Record of Yoga
54 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
33 The Synthesis Of Yoga
27 Letters On Yoga II
20 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
19 Letters On Yoga IV
19 Essays On The Gita
18 The Study and Practice of Yoga
18 Bhakti-Yoga
17 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
15 Letters On Yoga III
12 Talks
11 Vishnu Purana
10 The Secret Of The Veda
10 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
9 Agenda Vol 13
8 Amrita Gita
7 The Perennial Philosophy
7 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
6 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
6 Songs of Kabir
6 Letters On Yoga I
6 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
5 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
5 Preparing for the Miraculous
5 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
5 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
5 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
5 Agenda Vol 01
4 Vedic and Philological Studies
4 The Golden Bough
4 Tagore - Poems
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
4 Agenda Vol 11
4 Agenda Vol 10
4 Agenda Vol 09
4 Agenda Vol 02
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 Magick Without Tears
3 Liber ABA
3 Essays Divine And Human
3 Agenda Vol 03
2 Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit
2 Words Of Long Ago
2 Some Answers From The Mother
2 Letters On Poetry And Art
2 Kena and Other Upanishads
2 Isha Upanishad
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
2 Agenda Vol 05
2 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
00.04 - The Beautiful in the Upanishads, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
aravat tanmayo bhavet
Be wholly fixed on That, like an arrow on its target,
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0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
The main temple is dedicated to Kali, the Divine Mother, here worshipped as bhavatarini, the Saviour of the Universe. The floor of this temple also is paved with marble. The basalt image of the Mother, dressed in gorgeous gold brocade, stands on a white marble image of the prostrate body of Her Divine Consort, Siva, the symbol of the Absolute. On the feet of the Goddess are, among other ornaments, anklets of gold. Her arms are decked with jewelled ornaments of gold. She wears necklaces of gold and pearls, a golden garland of human heads, and a girdle of human arms. She wears a golden crown, golden ear-rings, and a golden nose-ring with a pearl-drop. She has four arms. The lower left hand holds a severed human head and the upper grips a blood-stained sabre. One right hand offers boons to Her children; the other allays their fear. The majesty of Her posture can hardly be described. It combines the terror of destruction with the reassurance of motherly tenderness. For She is the Cosmic Power, the totality of the universe, a glorious harmony of the pairs of opposites. She deals out death, as She creates and preserves. She has three eyes, the third being the symbol of Divine Wisdom; they strike dismay into the wicked, yet pour out affection for Her devotees.
The whole symbolic world is represented in the temple garden — the Trinity of the Nature Mother (Kali), the Absolute (Siva), and Love (Radhakanta), the Arch spanning heaven and earth. The terrific Goddess of the Tantra, the soul-enthralling Flute-Player of the bhagavata, and the Self-absorbed Absolute of the Vedas live together, creating the greatest synthesis of religions. All aspects of Reality are represented there. But of this divine household, Kali is the pivot, the sovereign Mistress. She is Prakriti, the Procreatrix, Nature, the Destroyer, the Creator. Nay, She is something greater and deeper still for those who have eyes to see. She is the Universal Mother, "my Mother" as Ramakrishna would say, the All-powerful, who reveals Herself to Her children under different aspects and Divine Incarnations, the Visible God, who leads the elect to the Invisible Reality; and if it so pleases Her, She takes away the last trace of ego from created beings and merges it in the consciousness of the Absolute, the undifferentiated God. Through Her grace "the finite ego loses itself in the illimitable Ego — Atman — Brahman". (Romain Holland, Prophets of the New India, p. 11.)
Rani Rasmani spent a fortune for the construction of the temple garden and another fortune for its dedication ceremony, which took place on May 31, 1855.
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One day Haladhari upset Sri Ramakrishna with the statement that God is incomprehensible to the human mind. Sri Ramakrishna has described the great moment of doubt when he wondered whether his visions had really misled him: "With sobs I prayed to the Mother, 'Canst Thou have the heart to deceive me like this because I am a fool?' A stream of tears flowed from my eyes. Shortly afterwards I saw a volume of mist rising from the floor and filling the space before me. In the midst of it there appeared a face with flowing beard, calm, highly expressive, and fair. Fixing its gaze steadily upon me, it said solemnly, 'Remain in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness.' This it repeated three times and then it gently disappeared in the mist, which itself dissolved. This vision reassured me."
A garbled report of Sri Ramakrishna's failing health, indifference to worldly life, and various abnormal activities reached Kamarpukur and filled the heart of his poor mother with anguish. At her repeated request he returned to his village for a change of air. But his boyhood friends did not interest him any more. A divine fever was consuming him. He spent a great part of the day and night in one of the cremation grounds, in meditation. The place reminded him of the impermanence of the human body, of human hopes and achievements. It also reminded him of Kali, the Goddess of destruction.
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Sri Ramakrishna welcomed the visitor with great respect, described to her his experiences and visions, and told her of people's belief that these were symptoms of madness. She listened to him attentively and said: "My son, everyone in this world is mad. Some are mad for money, some for creature comforts, some for name and fame; and you are mad for God." She assured him that he was passing through the almost unknown spiritual experience described in the scriptures as maha bhava, the most exalted rapture of divine love. She told him that this extreme exaltation had been described as manifesting itself through nineteen physical symptoms, including the shedding of tears, a tremor of the body, horripilation, perspiration, and a burning sensation. The bhakti scriptures, she declared, had recorded only two instances of the experience, namely, those of Sri Radha and Sri Chaitanya.
Very soon a tender relationship sprang up between Sri Ramakrishna and the Brahmani, she looking upon him as the Baby Krishna, and he upon her as mother. Day after day she watched his ecstasy during the kirtan and meditation, his samadhi, his mad yearning; and she recognized in him a power to transmit spirituality to others. She came to the conclusion that such things were not possible for an ordinary devotee, not even for a highly developed soul. Only an Incarnation of God was capable of such spiritual manifestations. She proclaimed openly that Sri Ramakrishna, like Sri Chaitanya, was an Incarnation of God.
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Vaishnavism is exclusively a religion of bhakti. bhakti is intense love of God, attachment to Him alone; it is of the nature of bliss and bestows upon the lover immortality and liberation. God, according to Vaishnavism, cannot be realized through logic or reason; and, without bhakti, all penances, austerities and rites are futile. Man cannot realize God by self-exertion alone. For the vision of God His grace is absolutely necessary, and this grace is felt by the pure of heart. The mind is to be purified through bhakti. The pure mind then remains for ever immersed in the ecstasy of God-vision. It is the cultivation of this divine love that is the chief concern of the Vaishnava religion.
There are three kinds of formal devotion: tamasic, rajasic, and sattvic. If a person, while showing devotion, to God, is actuated by malevolence, arrogance, jealousy, or anger, then his devotion is tamasic, since it is influenced by tamas, the quality of inertia. If he worships God from a desire for fame or wealth, or from any other worldly ambition, then his devotion is rajasic, since it is influenced by rajas, the quality of activity. But if a person loves God without any thought of material gain, if he performs his duties to please God alone and maintains toward all created beings the attitude of friendship, then his devotion is called sattvic, since it is influenced by sattva, the quality of harmony. But the highest devotion transcends the three gunas, or qualities, being a spontaneous, uninterrupted inclination of the mind toward God, the Inner Soul of all beings; and it wells up in the heart of a true devotee as soon as he hears the name of God or mention of God's attributes. A devotee possessed of this love would not accept the happiness of heaven if it were offered him. His one desire is to love God under all conditions — in pleasure and pain, life and death, honour and dishonour, prosperity and adversity.
There are two stages of bhakti. The first is known as vaidhi- bhakti, or love of God qualified by scriptural injunctions. For the devotees of this stage are prescribed regular and methodical worship, hymns, prayers, the repetition of God's name, and the chanting of His glories. This lower bhakti in course of time matures into para- bhakti, or supreme devotion, known also as prema, the most intense form of divine love. Divine love is an end in itself. It exists potentially in all human hearts, but in the case of bound creatures it is misdirected to earthly objects.
To develop the devotee's love for God, Vaishnavism humanizes God. God is to be regarded as the devotee's Parent, Master, Friend, Child, Husband, or Sweetheart, each succeeding relationship representing an intensification of love. These bhavas, or attitudes toward God, are known as santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, and madhur. The rishis of the Vedas, Hanuman, the cow-herd boys of Vrindavan, Rama's mother Kausalya, and Radhika, Krishna's sweetheart, exhibited, respectively, the most perfect examples of these forms. In the ascending scale the-glories of God are gradually forgotten and the devotee realizes more and more the intimacy of divine communion. Finally he regards himself as the mistress of his Beloved, and no artificial barrier remains to separate him from his Ideal. No social or moral obligation can bind to the earth his soaring spirit. He experiences perfect union with the Godhead. Unlike the Vedantist, who strives to transcend all varieties of the subject-object relationship, a devotee of the Vaishnava path wishes to retain both his own individuality and the personality of God. To him God is not an intangible Absolute, but the Purushottama, the Supreme Person.
While practising the discipline of the madhur bhava, the male devotee often regards himself as a woman, in order to develop the most intense form of love for Sri Krishna, the only purusha, or man, in the universe. This assumption of the attitude of the opposite sex has a deep psychological significance. It is a matter of common experience that an idea may be cultivated to such an intense degree that every idea alien to it is driven from the mind. This peculiarity of the mind may be utilized for the subjugation of the lower desires and the development of the spiritual nature. Now, the idea which is the basis of all desires and passions in a man is the conviction of his indissoluble association with a male body. If he can inoculate himself thoroughly with the idea that he is a woman, he can get rid of the desires peculiar to his male body. Again, the idea that he is a woman may in turn be made to give way to another higher idea, namely, that he is neither man nor woman, but the Impersonal Spirit. The Impersonal Spirit alone can enjoy real communion with the Impersonal God. Hence the highest est realization of the Vaishnava draws close to the transcendental experience of the Vedantist.
A beautiful expression of the Vaishnava worship of God through love is to be found in the Vrindavan episode of the bhagavata. The gopis, or milk-maids, of Vrindavan regarded the six-year-old Krishna as their Beloved. They sought no personal gain or happiness from this love. They surrendered to Krishna their bodies, minds, and souls. Of all the gopis, Radhika, or Radha, because of her intense love for Him, was the closest to Krishna. She manifested maha bhava and was united with her Beloved. This union represents, through sensuous language, a supersensuous experience.
Sri Chaitanya, also known as Gauranga, Gora, or Nimai, born in Bengal in 1485 and regarded as an Incarnation of God, is a great prophet of the Vaishnava religion. Chaitanya declared the chanting of God's name to be the most efficacious spiritual discipline for the Kaliyuga.
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Now one with Radha, he manifested the great ecstatic love, the maha bhava, which had found in her its fullest expression. Later Sri Ramakrishna said: "The manifestation in the same individual of the nineteen different kinds of emotion for God is called, in the books on bhakti, maha bhava. An ordinary man takes a whole lifetime to express even a single one of these. But in this body [meaning himself] there has been a complete manifestation of all nineteen."
The love of Radha is the precursor of the resplendent vision of Sri Krishna, and Sri Ramakrishna soon experienced that vision. The enchanting ing form of Krishna appeared to him and merged in his person. He became Krishna; he totally forgot his own individuality and the world; he saw Krishna in himself and in the universe. Thus he attained to the fulfilment of the worship of the Personal God. He drank from the fountain of Immortal Bliss. The agony of his heart vanished forever. He realized Amrita, Immortality, beyond the shadow of death.
One day, listening to a recitation of the bhagavata on the verandah of the Radhakanta temple, he fell into a divine mood and saw the enchanting form of Krishna. He perceived the luminous rays issuing from Krishna's Lotus Feet in the form of a stout rope, which touched first the bhagavata and then his own chest, connecting all three — God, the scripture, and the devotee. "After this vision", he used to say, "I came to realize that bhagavan, bhakta, and bhagavata — God, Devotee, and Scripture — are in reality one and the same."
--- VEDANTA
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The Divine Mother asked Sri Ramakrishna not to be lost in the featureless Absolute but to remain, in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness, the border line between the Absolute and the Relative. He was to keep himself at the "sixth centre" of Tantra, from which he could see not only the glory of the seventh, but also the divine manifestations of the Kundalini in the lower centres. He gently oscillated back and forth across the dividing line. Ecstatic devotion to the Divine Mother alternated with serene absorption in the Ocean of Absolute Unity. He thus bridged the gulf between the Personal and the Impersonal, the immanent and the transcendent aspects of Reality. This is a unique experience in the recorded spiritual history of the world.
--- TOTAPURI'S LESSON
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Sri Ramakrishna used to say that when the flower blooms the bees come to it for honey of their own accord. Now many souls began to visit Dakshineswar to satisfy their spiritual hunger. He, the devotee and aspirant, became the Master. Gauri, the great scholar who had been one of the first to proclaim Sri Ramakrishna an Incarnation of God, paid the Master a visit in 1870 and with the Master's blessings renounced the world. Narayan Shastri, another great pundit, who had mastered the six systems of Hindu philosophy and had been offered a lucrative post by the Maharaja of Jaipur, met the Master and recognized in him one who had realized in life those ideals which he himself had encountered merely in books. Sri Ramakrishna initiated Narayan Shastri, at his earnest request, into the life of sannyas. Pundit Padmalochan, the court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan, well known for his scholarship in both the Vedanta and the Nyaya systems of philosophy, accepted the Master as an Incarnation of God. Krishnakishore, a Vedantist scholar, became devoted to the Master. And there arrived Viswanath Upadhyaya, who was to become a favourite devotee; Sri Ramakrishna always addressed him as "Captain". He was a high officer of the King of Nepal and had received the title of Colonel in recognition of his merit. A scholar of the Gita, the bhagavata, and the Vedanta philosophy, he daily performed the worship of his Chosen Deity with great devotion. "I have read the Vedas and the other scriptures", he said. "I have also met a good many monks and devotees in different places. But it is in Sri Ramakrishna's presence that my spiritual yearnings have been fulfilled. To me he seems to be the embodiment of the truths of the scriptures."
The Knowledge of Brahman in nirvikalpa samadhi had convinced Sri Ramakrishna that the gods of the different religions are but so many readings of the Absolute, and that the Ultimate Reality could never be expressed by human tongue. He understood that all religions lead their devotees by differing paths to one and the same goal. Now he became eager to explore some of the alien religions; for with him understanding meant actual experience.
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Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, the right-hand man of Keshab and an accomplished Brahmo preacher in Europe and America, bitterly criticized Sri Ramakrishna's use of uncultured language and also his austere attitude toward his wife. But he could not escape the spell of the Master's personality. In the course of an article about Sri Ramakrishna, Pratap wrote in the "Theistic Quarterly Review": "What is there in common between him and me? I, a Europeanized, civilized, self-centred, semi-sceptical, so-called educated reasoner, and he, a poor, illiterate, unpolished, half-idolatrous, friendless Hindu devotee? Why should I sit long hours to attend to him, I, who have listened to Disraeli and Fawcett, Stanley and Max Muller, and a whole host of European scholars and divines? . . . And it is not I only, but dozens like me, who do the same. . . . He worships Siva, he worships Kali, he worships Rama, he worships Krishna, and is a confirmed advocate of Vedantic doctrines. . . . He is an idolater, yet is a faithful and most devoted meditator on the perfections of the One Formless, Absolute, Infinite Deity. . . . His religion is ecstasy, his worship means transcendental insight, his whole nature burns day and night with a permanent fire and fever of a strange faith and feeling. . . . So long as he is spared to us, gladly shall we sit at his feet to learn from him the sublime precepts of purity, unworldliness, spirituality, and inebriation in the love of God. . . . He, by his childlike bhakti, by his strong conceptions of an ever-ready Motherhood, helped to unfold it [God as our Mother] in our minds wonderfully. . . . By associating with him we learnt to realize better the divine attributes as scattered over the three hundred and thirty millions of deities of mythological India, the gods of the Puranas."
The Brahmo leaders received much inspiration from their contact with Sri Ramakrishna. It broadened their religious views and kindled in their hearts the yearning for God-realization; it made them understand and appreciate the rituals and symbols of Hindu religion, convinced them of the manifestation of God in diverse forms, and deepened their thoughts about the harmony of religions. The Master, too, was impressed by the sincerity of many of the Brahmo devotees. He told them about his own realizations and explained to them the essence of his teachings, such as the necessity of renunciation, sincerity in the pursuit of one's own course of discipline, faith in God, the performance of one's duties without thought of results, and discrimination between the Real and the unreal.
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bhavanath Chatterji visited the Master while he was still in his teens. His parents and relatives regarded Sri Ramakrishna as an insane person and tried their utmost to prevent him from becoming intimate with the Master. But the young boy was very stubborn and often spent nights at Dakshineswar. He was greatly attached to Narendra, and the Master encouraged their friendship. The very sight of him often awakened Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual emotion.
--- BALARAM BOSE
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In the beginning of September 1885 Sri Ramakrishna was moved to Syampukur. Here Narendra organized the young disciples to attend the Master day and night. At first they concealed the Master's illness from their guardians; but when it became more serious they remained with him almost constantly, sweeping aside the objections of their relatives and devoting themselves whole-heartedly to the nursing of their beloved guru. These young men, under the watchful eyes of the Master and the leadership of Narendra, became the antaranga bhaktas, the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna's inner circle. They were privileged to witness many manifestations of the Master's divine powers. Narendra received instructions regarding the propagation of his message after his death.
The Holy Mother — so Sarada Devi had come to be affectionately known by Sri Ramakrishna's devotees — was brought from Dakshineswar to look after the general cooking and to prepare the special diet of the patient. The dwelling space being extremely limited, she had to adapt herself to cramped conditions. At three o'clock in the morning she would finish her bath in the Ganges and then enter a small covered place on the roof, where she spent the whole day cooking and praying. After eleven at night, when the visitors went away, she would come down to her small bedroom on the first floor to enjoy a few hours' sleep. Thus she spent three months, working hard, sleeping little, and praying constantly for the Master's recovery.
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0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
It did not take much time for M. to become very intimate with the Master, or for the Master to recognise in this disciple a divinely commissioned partner in the fulfilment of his spiritual mission. When M. was reading out the Chaitanya bhagavata, the Master discovered that he had been, in a previous birth, a disciple and companion of the great Vaishnava Teacher, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and the Master even saw him 'with his naked eye' participating in the ecstatic mass-singing of the Lord's name under the leadership of that Divine personality. So the Master told M, "You are my own, of the same substance as the father and the son," indicating thereby that M. was one of the chosen few and a part and parcel of his Divine mission.
There was an urge in M. to abandon the household life and become a Sannysin. When he communicated this idea to the Master, he forbade him saying," Mother has told me that you have to do a little of Her work you will have to teach bhagavata, the word of God to humanity. The Mother keeps a bhagavata Pandit with a bondage in the world!"
( Ibid P.36.)
An appropriate allusion indeed! bhagavata, the great scripture that has given the word of Sri Krishna to mankind, was composed by the Sage Vysa under similar circumstances. When caught up in a mood of depression like that of M, Vysa was advised by the sage Nrada that he would gain peace of mind only qn composing a work exclusively devoted to the depiction of the Lord's glorious attributes and His teachings on Knowledge and Devotion, and the result was that the world got from Vysa the invaluable gift of the bhagavata Purana depicting the life and teachings of Sri Krishna.
From the mental depression of the modem Vysa, the world has obtained the Kathmrita (Bengali Edition) the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English.
Sri Ramakrishna was a teacher for both the Orders of mankind, Sannysins and householders. His own life offered an ideal example for both, and he left behind disciples who followed the highest traditions he had set in respect of both these ways of life. M., along with Nag Mahashay, exemplified how a householder can rise to the highest level of sagehood. M. was married to Nikunja Devi, a distant relative of Keshab Chander Sen, even when he was reading at College, and he had four children, two sons and two daughters. The responsibility of the family, no doubt, made him dependent on his professional income, but the great devotee that he was, he never compromised with ideals and principles for this reason. Once when he was working as the headmaster in a school managed by the great Vidysgar, the results of the school at the public examination happened to be rather poor, and Vidysgar attri buted it to M's preoccupation with the Master and his consequent failure to attend adequately to the school work. M. at once resigned his post without any thought of the morrow. Within a fortnight the family was in poverty, and M. was one day pacing up and down the verandah of his house, musing how he would feed his children the next day. Just then a man came with a letter addressed to 'Mahendra Babu', and on opening it, M. found that it was a letter from his friend Sri Surendra Nath Banerjee, asking whether he would like to take up a professorship in the Ripon College. In this way three or four times he gave up the job that gave him the wherewithal to support the family, either for upholding principles or for practising spiritual Sadhanas in holy places, without any consideration of the possible dire worldly consequences; but he was always able to get over these difficulties somehow, and the interests of his family never suffered. In spite of his disregard for worldly goods, he was, towards the latter part of his life, in a fairly flourishing condition as the proprietor of the Morton School which he developed into a noted educational institution in the city. The Lord has said in the bhagavad Git that in the case of those who think of nothing except Him, He Himself would take up all their material and spiritual responsibilities. M. was an example of the truth of the Lord's promise.
Though his children received proper attention from him, his real family, both during the Master's lifetime and after, consisted of saints, devotees, Sannysins and spiritual aspirants. His life exemplifies the Master's teaching that an ideal householder must be like a good maidservant of a family, loving and caring properly for the children of the house, but knowing always that her real home and children are elsewhere. During the Master's lifetime he spent all his Sundays and other holidays with him and his devotees, and besides listening to the holy talks and devotional music, practised meditation both on the Personal and the Impersonal aspects of God under the direct guidance of the Master. In the pages of the Gospel the reader gets a picture of M.'s spiritual relationship with the Master how from a hazy belief in the Impersonal God of the Brahmos, he was step by step brought to accept both Personality and Impersonality as the two aspects of the same Non-dual Being, how he was convinced of the manifestation of that Being as Gods, Goddesses and as Incarnations, and how he was established in a life that was both of a Jnni and of a bhakta. This Jnni- bhakta outlook and way of living became so dominant a feature of his life that Swami Raghavananda, who was very closely associated with him during his last six years, remarks: "Among those who lived with M. in latter days, some felt that he always lived in this constant and conscious union with God even with open eyes (i.e., even in waking consciousness)." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha bharata vol. XXXVII. P. 442.)
Besides undergoing spiritual disciplines at the feet of the Master, M. used to go to holy places during the Master's lifetime itself and afterwards too as a part of his Sdhan.
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The life of Sdhan and holy association that he started on at the feet of the Master, he continued all through his life. He has for this reason been most appropriately described as a Grihastha-Sannysi (householder-Sannysin). Though he was forbidden by the Master to become a Sannysin, his reverence for the Sannysa ideal was whole-hearted and was without any reservation. So after Sri Ramakrishna's passing away, while several of the Master's householder devotees considered the young Sannysin disciples of the Master as inexperienced and inconsequential, M. stood by them with the firm faith that the Master's life and message were going to be perpetuated only through them. Swami Vivekananda wrote from America in a letter to the inmates of the Math: "When Sri Thkur (Master) left the body, every one gave us up as a few unripe urchins. But M. and a few others did not leave us in the lurch. We cannot repay our debt to them." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha bharata vol. XXX P. 442.)
M. spent his weekends and holidays with the monastic brethren who, after the Master's demise, had formed themselves into an Order with a Math at Baranagore, and participated in the intense life of devotion and meditation that they followed. At other times he would retire to Dakshineswar or some garden in the city and spend several days in spiritual practice taking simple self-cooked food. In order to feel that he was one with all mankind he often used to go out of his home at dead of night, and like a wandering Sannysin, sleep with the waifs on some open verandah or footpath on the road.
After the Master's demise, M. went on pilgrimage several times. He visited Banras, Vrindvan, Ayodhy and other places. At Banras he visited the famous Trailinga Swmi and fed him with sweets, and he had long conversations with Swami bhaskarananda, one of the noted saintly and scholarly Sannysins of the time. In 1912 he went with the Holy Mother to Banras, and spent about a year in the company of Sannysins at Banras, Vrindvan, Hardwar, Hrishikesh and Swargashram. But he returned to Calcutta, as that city offered him the unique opportunity of associating himself with the places hallowed by the Master in his lifetime. Afterwards he does not seem to have gone to any far-off place, but stayed on in his room in the Morton School carrying on his spiritual ministry, speaking on the Master and his teachings to the large number of people who flocked to him after having read his famous Kathmrita known to English readers as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
This brings us to the circumstances that led to the writing and publication of this monumental work, which has made M. one of the immortals in hagiographic literature.
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Besides the prompting of his inherent instinct, the main inducement for M. to keep this diary of his experiences at Dakshineswar was his desire to provide himself with a means for living in holy company at all times. Being a school teacher, he could be with the Master only on Sundays and other holidays, and it was on his diary that he depended for 'holy company' on other days. The devotional scriptures like the bhagavata say that holy company is the first and most important means for the generation and growth of devotion. For, in such company man could hear talks on spiritual matters and listen to the glorification of Divine attri butes, charged with the fervour and conviction emanating from the hearts of great lovers of God. Such company is therefore the one certain means through which Sraddha (Faith), Rati (attachment to God) and bhakti (loving devotion) are generated. The diary of his visits to Dakshineswar provided M. with material for re-living, through reading and contemplation, the holy company he had had earlier, even on days when he was not able to visit Dakshineswar. The wealth of details and the vivid description of men and things in the midst of which the sublime conversations are set, provide excellent material to re-live those experiences for any one with imaginative powers. It was observed by M.'s disciples and admirers that in later life also whenever he was free or alone, he would be pouring over his diary, transporting himself on the wings of imagination to the glorious days he spent at the feet of the Master.
During the Master's lifetime M. does not seem to have revealed the contents of his diary to any one. There is an unconfirmed tradition that when the Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility of his utilising these to publicise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master was so full of the spirit of renunciation and humility that he disliked being lionised. It must be for this reason that no one knew about this precious diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections from it as a pamphlet in English in 1897 with the Holy Mother's blessings and permission. The Holy Mother, being very much pleased to hear parts of the diary read to her in Bengali, wrote to M.: "When I heard the Kathmrita, (Bengali name of the book) I felt as if it was he, the Master, who was saying all that." ( Ibid Part I. P 37.)
--
( Prabuddha bharata Vol. XXXVII P 499.)
As time went on and the number of devotees increased, the staircase room and terrace of the 3rd floor of the Morton Institution became a veritable Naimisaranya of modern times, resounding during all hours of the day, and sometimes of night, too, with the word of God coming from the Rishi-like face of M. addressed to the eager God-seekers sitting around. To the devotees who helped him in preparing the text of the Gospel, he would dictate the conversations of the Master in a meditative mood, referring now and then to his diary. At times in the stillness of midnight he would awaken a nearby devotee and tell him: "Let us listen to the words of the Master in the depths of the night as he explains the truth of the Pranava." ( Vednta Kesari XIX P. 142.) Swami Raghavananda, an intimate devotee of M., writes as follows about these devotional sittings: "In the sweet and warm months of April and May, sitting under the canopy of heaven on the roof-garden of 50 Amherst Street, surrounded by shrubs and plants, himself sitting in their midst like a Rishi of old, the stars and planets in their courses beckoning us to things infinite and sublime, he would speak to us of the mysteries of God and His love and of the yearning that would rise in the human heart to solve the Eternal Riddle, as exemplified in the life of his Master. The mind, melting under the influence of his soft sweet words of light, would almost transcend the frontiers of limited existence and dare to peep into the infinite. He himself would take the influence of the setting and say,'What a blessed privilege it is to sit in such a setting (pointing to the starry heavens), in the company of the devotees discoursing on God and His love!' These unforgettable scenes will long remain imprinted on the minds of his hearers." (Prabuddha bharata Vol XXXVII P 497.)
About twenty-seven years of his life he spent in this way in the heart of the great city of Calcutta, radiating the Master's thoughts and ideals to countless devotees who flocked to him, and to still larger numbers who read his Kathmrita (English Edition : The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna), the last part of which he had completed before June 1932 and given to the press. And miraculously, as it were, his end also came immediately after he had completed his life's mission. About three months earlier he had come to stay at his home at 13/2 Gurdasprasad Chaudhuary Lane at Thakur Bari, where the Holy Mother had herself installed the Master and where His regular worship was being conducted for the previous 40 years. The night of 3rd June being the Phalahrini Kli Pooja day, M.
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0.01 - I - Sri Aurobindos personality, his outer retirement - outside contacts after 1910 - spiritual personalities- Vibhutis and Avatars - transformtion of human personality, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Over and above Sadhana, writing work and rendering spiritual help to the world during his apparent retirement there were plenty of other activities of which the outside world has no knowledge. Many prominent as well as less known persons sought and obtained interviews with him during these years. Thus, among well-known persons may be mentioned C.R. Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sarala Devi, Dr. Munje, Khasirao Jadhav, Tagore, Sylvain Levy. The great national poet of Tamil Nadu, S. Subramanya bharati, was in contact with Sri Aurobindo for some years during his stay at Pondicherry; so was V.V.S. Aiyar. The famous V. Ramaswamy Aiyangar Va Ra of Tamil literature[3] stayed with Sri Aurobindo for nearly three years and was influenced by him. Some of these facts have been already mentioned in The Life of Sri Aurobindo.
Jung has admitted that there is an element of mystery, something that baffles the reason, in human personality. One finds that the greater the personality the greater is the complexity. And this is especially so with regard to spiritual personalities whom the Gita calls Vibhutis and Avatars.
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0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
bhakta seeks and yearns after bhagavan, bhagavan also seeks and yearns after the bhakta.1 There can be no Yoga of knowledge without a human seeker of the knowledge, the supreme subject of knowledge and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of knowledge; no Yoga of devotion without the human God-lover, the supreme object of love and delight and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of spiritual, emotional and aesthetic enjoyment; no Yoga of works without the human worker, the supreme Will, Master of all works and sacrifices, and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of power and action. However Monistic may be our intellectual conception of the highest truth of things, in practice we are compelled to accept this omnipresent Trinity.
For the contact of the human and individual consciousness with the divine is the very essence of Yoga. Yoga is the union of that which has become separated in the play of the universe with its own true self, origin and universality. The contact may take place at any point of the complex and intricately organised consciousness which we call our personality. It may be effected in the physical through the body; in the vital through the action of
bhakta, the devotee or lover of God; bhagavan, God, the Lord of Love and Delight.
The third term of the trinity is bhagavat, the divine revelation of Love.
The Systems of Yoga
--
Lord, with our human life as its final stage, pursued through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revelation. The principle of bhakti Yoga is to utilise all the normal relations of human life into which emotion enters and apply them no longer to transient worldly relations, but to the joy of the All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. Worship and meditation are used only for the preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. And this Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation.
This path, too, as ordinarily practised, leads away from worldexistence to an absorption, of another kind than the Monist's, in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic.
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0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
what he receives and knows of the Divine. The bhakta meets
a Divine full of affection and sweetness, the wise man will find
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01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Swalpamapyasya dharmasya tryate mahato bhayt1
Now, if it is asked what is the proof of it all, how can one be sure that one is not running after a mirage, a chimera? We can only answer with the adage; the proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof
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01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Indeed, it would be interesting to compare and contrast the Eastern and Western approach to Divine Love, the Christian and the Vaishnava, for example. Indian spirituality, whatever its outer form or credal formulation, has always a background of utter unity. This unity, again, is threefold or triune and is expressed in those great Upanishadic phrases,mahvkyas,(1) the transcendental unity: the One alone exists, there is nothing else than theOneekamevdvityam; (2) the cosmic unity: all existence is one, whatever exists is that One, thereare no separate existences:sarvam khalvidam brahma neha nnsti kincaa; (3) That One is I, you too are that One:so' ham, tattvamasi; this may be called the individual unity. As I have said, all spiritual experiences in India, of whatever school or line, take for granted or are fundamentally based upon this sense of absolute unity or identity. Schools of dualism or pluralism, who do not apparently admit in their tenets this extreme monism, are still permeated in many ways with that sense and in some form or other take cognizance of the truth of it. The Christian doctrine too says indeed, 'I and my Father in Heaven are one', but this is not identity, but union; besides, the human soul is not admitted into this identity, nor the world soul. The world, we have seen, according to the Christian discipline has to be altogether abandoned, negatived, as we go inward and upward towards our spiritual status reflecting the divine image in the divine company. It is a complete rejection, a cutting off and casting away of world and life. One extreme Vedantic path seems to follow a similar line, but there it is not really rejection, but a resolution, not the rejection of what is totally foreign and extraneous, but a resolution of the external into its inner and inmost substance, of the effect into its original cause. Brahman is in the world, Brahman is the world: the world has unrolled itself out of the Brahmansi, pravttiit has to be rolled back into its, cause and substance if it is to regain its pure nature (that is the process of nivitti). Likewise, the individual being in the world, "I", is the transcendent being itself and when it withdraws, it withdraws itself and the whole world with it and merges into the Absolute. Even the Maya of the Mayavadin, although it is viewed as something not inherent in Brahman but superimposed upon Brahman, still, has been accepted as a peculiar power of Brahman itself. The Christian doctrine keeps the individual being separate practically, as an associate or at the most as an image of God. The love for one's neighbour, charity, which the Christian discipline enjoins is one's love for one's kind, because of affinity of nature and quality: it does not dissolve the two into an integral unity and absolute identity, where we love because we are one, because we are the One. The highest culmination of love, the very basis of love, according to the Indian conception, is a transcendence of love, love trans-muted into Bliss. The Upanishad says, where one has become the utter unity, who loves whom? To explain further our point, we take two examples referred to in the book we are considering. The true Christian, it is said, loves the sinner too, he is permitted to dislike sin, for he has to reject it, but he must separate from sin the sinner and love him. Why? Because the sinner too can change and become his brother in spirit, one loves the sinner because there is the possibility of his changing and becoming a true Christian. It is why the orthodox Christian, even such an enlightened and holy person as this mediaeval Canon, considers the non-Christian, the non-baptised as impure and potentially and fundamentally sinners. That is also why the Church, the physical organisation, is worshipped as Christ's very body and outside the Church lies the pagan world which has neither religion nor true spirituality nor salvation. Of course, all this may be symbolic and it is symbolic in a sense. If Christianity is taken to mean true spirituality, and the Church is equated with the collective embodiment of that spirituality, all that is claimed on their behalf stands justified. But that is an ideal, a hypothetical standpoint and can hardly be borne out by facts. However, to come back to our subject, let us ow take the second example. Of Christ himself, it is said, he not only did not dislike or had any aversion for Judas, but that he positively loved the traitor with a true and sincere love. He knew that the man would betray him and even when he was betraying and had betrayed, the Son of Man continued to love him. It was no make-believe or sham or pretence. It was genuine, as genuine as anything can be. Now, why did he love his enemy? Because, it is said, the enemy is suffered by God to do the misdeed: he has been allowed to test the faith of the faithful, he too has his utility, he too is God's servant. And who knows even a Judas would not change in the end? Many who come to scoff do remain to pray. But it can be asked, 'Does God love Satan too in the same way?' The Indian conception which is basically Vedantic is different. There is only one reality, one truth which is viewed differently. Whether a thing is considered good or evil or neutral, essentially and truly, it is that One and nothing else. God's own self is everywhere and the sage makes no difference between the Brahmin and the cow and the elephant. It is his own self he finds in every person and every objectsarvabhtsthitam yo mm bhajati ekatvamsthitah"he has taken his stand upon oneness and loves Me in all beings."2
This will elucidate another point of difference between the Christian's and the Vaishnava's love of God, for both are characterised by an extreme intensity and sweetness and exquisiteness of that divine feeling. This Christian's, however, is the union of the soul in its absolute purity and simplicity and "privacy" with her lord and master; the soul is shred here of all earthly vesture and goes innocent and naked into the embrace of her Beloved. The Vaishnava feeling is richer and seems to possess more amplitude; it is more concrete and less ethereal. The Vaishnava in his passionate yearning seeks to carry as it were the whole world with him to his Lord: for he sees and feels Him not only in the inmost chamber of his soul, but meets Him also in and I through his senses and in and through the world and its objects around. In psychological terms one can say that the Christian realisation, at its very source, is that of the inmost soul, what we call the "psychic being" pure and simple, referred to in the book we are considering; as: "His sweet privy voice... stirreth thine heart full stilly." Whereas the Vaishnava reaches out to his Lord with his outer heart too aflame with passion; not only his inmost being but his vital being also seeks the Divine. This bears upon the occult story of man's spiritual evolution upon earth. The Divine Grace descends from the highest into the deepest and from the deepest to the outer ranges of human nature, so that the whole of it may be illumined and transformed and one day man can embody in his earthly life the integral manifestation of God, the perfect Epiphany. Each religion, each line of spiritual discipline takes up one limb of manone level or mode of his being and consciousness purifies it and suffuses it with the spiritual and divine consciousness, so that in the end the whole of man, in his integral living, is recast and remoulded: each discipline is in charge of one thread as it were, all together weave the warp and woof in the evolution of the perfect pattern of a spiritualised and divinised humanity.
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0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the love of the bhakta for his God is a diminution and often is
tainted by egoism. But as one tends quite naturally to become
like what one loves, the bhakta, if he is sincere, begins to become
like the Divine whom he adores, and thus his love becomes purer
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01.10 - Principle and Personality, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Religious bodies that are formed through the bhakti and puja for one man, social reconstructions forced by the will and power of a single individual, have already in the inception this grain of incapacity and disease and death that they are not an integrally self-conscious creation, they are not, as a whole, intelligent and wide awake and therefore constantly responsive to the truths and ideals and realities for which they exist, for which at least, their founder intended them to exist. The light at the apex is the only light and the entire structure is but the shadow of that light; the whole thing has the aspect of a dark mass galvanised into red-hot activity by the passing touch of a dynamo. Immediately however the solitary light fails and the dynamo stops, there is nothing but the original darkness and inertiatoma asit tamasa gudham agre.
Man, however great and puissant he may be, is a perishable thing. People who gather or are gathered round a man and cling to him through the tie of a personal relation must fall off and scatter when the man passes away and the personal tie loses its hold. What remains is a memory, a gradually fading memory. But memory is hardly a creative force, it is a dead, at best, a moribund thing; the real creative power is Presence. So when the great man's presence, the power that crystallises is gone, the whole edifice crumbles and vanishes into air or remains a mere name.
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01.12 - Three Degrees of Social Organisation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The future society of man is envisaged as something of like nature. When the mortal being will have found his immortal soul and divine self, then each one will be able to give full and free expression to his self-nature (swa bhava); then indeed the utmost sweep of dynamism in each and all will not cause clash or conflict; on the contrary, each will increase the other and there will be a global increment and fulfilmentparasparam bhavayantah. The division and conflict, the stress and strain that belong to the very nature of the inferior level of being and consciousness will then have been transcended. It is only thus that a diviner humanity can be born and replace all the other moulds and types that can never lead to anything final and absolutely satisfactory.
***
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0 1958-05-11 - the ship that said OM, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And then I wondered, If we were to repeat the mantra we heard the other day4 (Om Namo bhagavateh) during the half-hour meditation, what would happen?
What would happen?
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0 1958-07-25a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Om - namo - bhagavateh
Car cest Toi qui es, qui vis, et qui saiscest Toi qui fais toute chose et qui es le rsultat de toute action.
--
Om - namo - bhagavateh
For it is You who is, who lives and who knowsit is You who does all things, You who is the result of every action.
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0 1958-09-16 - OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
object:0_1958-09-16 - OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH
author class:The Mother
--
OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH1
It is there, all around me; it takes hold of all the cells and at once they spring forth in an ascension. And Naradas mantra, too:
--
For the moment, of all the formulas or mantras, the one that acts most directly on this body, that seizes all the cells and immediately does this (vibrating motion) is the Sanskrit mantra: OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH.
As soon as I sit for meditation, as soon as I have a quiet minute to concentrate, it always begins with this mantra, and there is a response in the body, in the cells of the body: they all start vibrating.
--
It rose up from here (Mother indicates the solar plexus), like this: Om Namo bhagavateh OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH. It was formidable. For the entire quarter of an hour that the meditation lasted, everything was filled with Light! In the deeper tones it was of golden bronze (at the throat level it was almost red) and in the higher tones it was a kind of opaline white light: OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH, OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH, OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH.
The other day (I was in my bathroom upstairs), it came; it took hold of the entire body. It rose up in the same way, and all the cells were trembling. And with such a power! So I stopped everything, all movement, and I let the thing grow. The vibration went on expanding, ever widening, as the sound itself was expanding, expanding, and all the cells of the body were seized with an intensity of aspiration as if the entire body were swellingit became overwhelming. I felt that it would all burst.
--
Om namo bhagavateh shriaravindaya
Om namo namah shrimirambikayai.
--
OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH
all, all the time, all the time, all the time.
--
This one, this mantra, OM NAMO bhaGAVATEH, came to me after some time, for I felt well, I saw that I needed to have a mantra of my own, that is, a mantra consonant with what this body has to do in the world. And it was just then that it came.3 It was truly an answer to a need that had made itself felt. So if you feel the neednot there, not in your head, but here (Mother points to the center of her heart), it will come. One day, either you will hear the words, or they will spring forth from your heart And when that happens, you must hold onto it.
The first syllable of NAMO is pronounced with a short 'a,' as in nahmo. The final word is pronounced bha-GAH-VA-TEH.
The tantric Swami.
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0 1959-01-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In this regard, perhaps you know that X is the tenth in the line of bhaskaraya (my spelling of this name is perhaps not correct), the great Tantric of whom you had a vision, who could comm and the coming of Kali along with all her warriors. It is from X that Swami received his initiation.
Your last letter gave us great pleasure, knowing that you have finally recovered physically. But we deeply hope that you will not again take up the countless activities that formerly consumed all your timeso many people come to you egoistically, for prestige, to be able to say that they are on familiar terms with you. You know this, of course
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0 1959-06-13a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Another thing: we happened to talk of Sri Aurobindo and Lele.1 Concerning Lele, X told me, He was a devotee of the bhaskaraya School; this is why there is close connection I do not know if this is so, but X seemed to know.
For me, the inner things seem to have taken a better turn since X revealed certain things to me, but I prefer to say nothing. I dare not say anything since I know from experience that all this is as unstable as dynamite.
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0 1961-02-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
55Be wide in me, O Varuna; be mighty in me, O Indra; O Sun, be very bright and luminous; O Moon, be full of charm and sweetness. Be fierce and terrible, O Rudra; be impetuous and swift, O Maruts; be strong and bold, O Aryama; be voluptuous and pleasurable, O bhaga; be tender and kind and loving and passionate, O Mitra. Be bright and revealing, O Dawn; O Night, be solemn and pregnant. O Life, be full, ready and buoyant; O Death, lead my steps from mansion to mansion. Harmonise all these, O Brahmanaspati. Let me not be subject to these gods, O Kali.1
He invokes all these Vedic gods and tells each one to take possession of him; and THEN he tells Kali to free him from their influence! It is very amusing!
--
But I know differently and so does my bodyto me its all foolishness and has no importance. For instance, when Vinoba bhave came to see me4 (the man who takes care of poor people), he looked at me and said, Oh, youll live a hundred years! And I simply said, Yes, it all seemed so natural. At that moment, there wasnt even (how to put it?) the least intimation of a doubt. Of course its a clich, but nevertheless, he said it; afterwards he told people that this was what he had felt. And it seems completely natural I know if my body can last till its a hundred (a little less than twenty years more), then we will be on the other side the difficulty will be over.
I rather feel that your dream is another part of this present mass attack, but.
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0 1961-02-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Have you seen bharatidi?5
No, you know how I am, I dont go out.
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0 1961-03-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its outrageous! First of all, they use Sri Aurobindos name, putting it on a level with Vinoba bhave or Dr. Schweitzer or who knows what other sage; then at the end they launch an appeal for people to enroll! So the reader is left wondering, But I thought Sri Aurobindo. You understand, this indiscriminate mixture, this diminishing.
I wrote them a letter where I stuck this nonsense of theirs right under their noses.
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0 1961-08-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But Theon had no idea of the path of bhakti,5 none whatsoever. The idea of surrender to the Divine was absolutely alien to him. Yet he did have the idea of the Divine Presence here (Mother indicates the heart center), of the immanent Divine and of union with That. And he said that by uniting with That and letting That transform the being one could arrive at the divine creation and the transformation of the earth.
Theon was the first one to give me the idea that the earth is symbolic, representativesymbolic of concentrated universal action allowing divine forces to incarnate and work concretely. I learned all this from him.
--
I had a VERY interesting experienceit was last year or the year before, I dont recall, but after I retired to my room upstairs.6 You know that during pujas these goddesses come all the timethey dont enter the body and tie themselves to it, but they do come and manifest. Well, this time I think it must have been for last years pujaDurga came (she always arrives a few days in advance and remains in the atmosphere; she is present, like thisgesture as if Durga were walking up and down with Mother). I was in touch with her during my meditations upstairs, and this new Power in the body was in me then as it is in me now, and (how to put it?) I made her participate in this concept of surrender. What an experience she had, mon petit! An extraordinary experience of the joy of being connected with That. And she declared, From now on, I am a bhakta of the Lord.
It was beautiful.
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0 1962-03-11, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Only its perfectly true that to deal with those realms one must either be fully protected by a guru, a real guru, a man with knowledge, or else have purity (not saintliness), an unmixed vital and mental purity. Very, very often, bhaktas [devotees] of Sri Aurobindo or mewhen they are sincere, truly sincere, that is, people of great spiritual purityhave dozens of beings appear to them, saying, I am Sri Aurobindo. It happens all the time, with all the right external appearancesits very easy for such beings to put on a disguise. It takes the inner psychic purity not to be deceivedyou invariably FEEL something that makes it impossible for you to be duped. But otherwise, many, many people are taken in.
I dont like to talk about this because people here have no discrimination; they would be left with nothing but fear and would no longer believe in anything, forever asking me, Oh, isnt this a trick? Which paralyzes everything. Thats why I didnt speak about that in this Talk.
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0 1962-06-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Human experience, with this direct incarnation of the Supreme,9 is ultimately a UNIQUE experience, which has given a new orientation to universal history. Sri Aurobindo speaks of thishe speaks of the difference between the Vedic era, the Vedic way of relating to the Supreme, and the advent of Vedanta (I think its Vedanta): devotion, adoration, bhakti, the God within.10 Well, this aspect of rapport with the Supreme could exist ONLY WITH MAN, because man is a special being in universal History the divine Presence is in him. And several of those great gods have taken human bodies JUST TO HAVE THAT.11 But not many of themthey were so fully aware of their own perfect independence and their almightiness that they didnt NEED anything (unlike man, you see, struggling to escape his slavery): they were absolutely free.
And thats why. How many times Durga came! She would always come, and I had my eye on her (!), because in her presence I could clearly sense that there wasnt that rapport with the Supreme (she just didnt need it, she didnt need anything). And it wasnt that something acted on her consciously, deliberately, to obtain that result: it has been a contagion. I remember how she used to come, and my aspiration would be so intense, my inner attitude so concentrated and one day there was such a sense of power, of immensity, of ineffable bliss in the contact with the Supreme (it was a day when Durga was there), and she seemed to be taken and absorbed in it. And through that bliss she made her surrender.
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0 1962-07-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I shall write and tell you afterwards what this way of yoga is. Or if you come here I shall speak to you about it. In this matter the spoken word is better than the written. At present I can only say that its root-principle is to make a harmony and unity of complete knowledge, complete works and complete bhakti [Devotion], to raise all this above the mind and give it its complete perfection on the supramental level of Vijnana [Gnosis]. This was the defect of the old yoga the mind and the Spirit it knew, and it was satisfied with the experience of the Spirit in the mind. But the mind can grasp only the divided and partial; it cannot wholly seize the infinite and indivisible. The minds means to reach the infinite are Sannyasa [Renunciation], Moksha [Liberation] and Nirvana, and it has no others. One man or another may indeed attain this featureless Moksha, but what is the gain? The Brahman, the Self, God are ever present. What God wants in man is to embody Himself here in the individual and in the community, to realize God in life.
The old way of yoga failed to bring about the harmony or unity of Spirit and life: it instead dismissed the world as Maya [Illusion] or a transient Play. The result has been loss of life-power and the degeneration of India. As was said in the Gita, These peoples would perish if I did not do worksthese peoples of India have truly gone down to ruin. A few sannyasins and bairagis [renunciants] to be saintly and perfect and liberated, a few bhaktas [lovers of God] to dance in a mad ecstasy of love and sweet emotion and Ananda [Bliss], and a whole race to become lifeless, void of intelligence, sunk in deep tamas [inertia]is this the effect of true spirituality? No, we must first attain all the partial experiences possible on the mental level and flood the mind with spiritual delight and illumine it with spiritual light, but afterwards we must rise above. If we cannot rise above, to the supramental level, that is, it is hardly possible to know the worlds final secret and the problem it raises remains unsolved. There, the ignorance which creates a duality of opposition between the Spirit and Matter, between truth of spirit and truth of life, disappears. There one need no longer call the world Maya. The world is the eternal Play of God, the eternal manifestation of the Self. Then it becomes possible to fully know and fully realize Godto do what is said in the Gita, To know Me integrally. The physical body, the life, the mind and understanding, the supermind and the Ananda these are the spirits five levels. The higher man rises on this ascent the nearer he comes to the state of that highest perfection open to his spiritual evolution. Rising to the Supermind, it becomes easy to rise to the Ananda. One attains a firm foundation in the condition of the indivisible and infinite Ananda, not only in the timeless Parabrahman [Absolute] but in the body, in life, in the world. The integral being, the integral consciousness, the integral Ananda blossoms out and takes form in life. This is the central clue of my yoga, its fundamental principle.
This is no easy change to make. After these fifteen years I am only now rising into the lowest of the three levels of the Supermind and trying to draw up into it all the lower activities. But when this siddhi will be complete, then I am absolutely certain that through me God will give to others the siddhi of the Supermind with less effort. Then my real work will begin. I am not impatient for success in the work. What is to happen will happen in Gods appointed time. I have no hasty or disorderly impulse to rush into the field of work in the strength of the little ego. Even if I did not succeed in my work I would not be shaken. This work is not mine but Gods. I will listen to no other call; when God moves me then I will move.
I know very well that Bengal is not really ready. The spiritual flood which has come is for the most part a new form of the old. It is not the real transformation. However this too was needed. Bengal has been awakening in itself the old yogas and exhausting their samskaras [old habitual tendencies], extracting their essence and with it fertilizing the soil. At first it was the time of VedantaAdwaita, Sannyasa, Shankaras Maya and the rest. It is now the turn of Vaishnava DharmaLila, love, the intoxication of emotional experience. All this is very old, unfitted for the new age and will not endure for such excitement has no capacity to last. But the merit of the Vaishnava bhava [emotional enthusiasm] is that it keeps a connexion between God and the world and gives a meaning to life; but since it is a partial bhava the whole connexion, the full meaning is not there. The tendency to create sects which you have noticed was inevitable. The nature of the mind is to take a part and call it the whole and exclude all other parts. The Siddha [illuminated being] who brings the bhava, although he leans on its partial aspect, yet keeps some knowledge of the integral whole, even though he may not be able to give it form. But his disciples do not get that knowledge precisely because it is not in a form. They are tying up their little bundles, let them. The bundles will open of themselves when God manifests himself fully. These things are the signs of incompleteness and immaturity. I am not disturbed by them. Let the force of spirituality play in the country in whatever way and in as many sects as may be. Afterwards we shall see. This is the infancy or the embryonic condition of the new age. It is a first hint, not even the beginning.
The peculiarity of this yoga is that until there is siddhi above the foundation does not become perfect. Those who have been following my course had kept many of the old samskaras; some of them have dropped away, but others still remain. There was the samskara of Sannyasa, even the wish to create an Aravinda Math [Sri Aurobindo monastery]. Now the intellect has recognized that Sannyasa is not what is wanted, but the stamp of the old idea has not yet been effaced from the prana [breath, life energy]. And so there was next this talk of remaining in the midst of the world, as a man of worldly activities and yet a man of renunciation. The necessity of renouncing desire has been understood, but the harmony of renunciation of desire with enjoyment of Ananda has not been rightly seized by the mind. And they took up my Yoga because it was very natural to the Bengali temperament, not so much from the side of Knowledge as from the side of bhakti and Karma [Works]. A little knowledge has come in, but the greater part has escaped; the mist of sentimentalism has not been dissipated, the groove of the sattwic bhava [religious fervor] has not been broken. There is still the ego. I am not in haste, I allow each to develop according to his nature. I do not want to fashion all in the same mould. That which is fundamental will indeed be one in all, but it will express itself in many forms. Everybody grows, forms from within. I do not want to build from outside. The basis is there, the rest will come.
What I am aiming at is not a society like the present rooted in division. What I have in view is a Samgha [community] founded in the spirit and in the image of its oneness. It is with this idea that the name Deva Samgha has been given the commune of those who want the divine life is the Deva Samgha. Such a Samgha will have to be established in one place at first and then spread all over the country. But if any shadow of egoism falls over this endeavor, then the Samgha will change into a sect. The idea may very naturally creep in that such and such a body is the one true Samgha of the future, the one and only centre, that all else must be its circumference, and that those outside its limits are not of the fold or even if they are, have gone astray, because they think differently.
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0 1963-08-10, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is the story of the Raja of bhaowal, which created a sensation in the Indian press around 1930.
Can we ever overemphasize the fact that what happened to Mother ten years later, in 1973, is an unspeakable betrayal ... of which she had a presentiment?
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0 1964-06-04, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have received a letter from bharatidi,1 who is reading your book with enthusiasm and a fine understanding.
You do not tell me anything about your health. I assume it is good thanks to the air of Brittany and that you will come back with a brand-new system.
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0 1964-08-19, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
As bharatidi puts it, they love the sound of their own voices.
But thats exactly the point, she is perfectly right.
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0 1965-11-20, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
She kept me almost an hour! She told me, The next time, I wont chatter. So this time it was only half an hour! But she has a very pleasant way of saying things. And there is a strange phenomenon, which took place some two or three years ago, I dont remember now. It was after the consciousness had entirely spread all over the world (all over the earth, in reality), but as if progressively, in the sense that its more intense close at hand and less intense farther away. But then, with bharatidi, its not just a physical closeness: its a sort of closeness of vibration in a certain domain; and in her, the closeness lay in a certain ironically benevolent observation. And while talking with someone, I dont know how many times I have caught myself having bharatidis voice and using her words! And in my ingenuousness, I told her, Do you know, we have such an intimate relationship that at timesvery oftenwhen I speak I have your intonation and use your words. Ah, mon petit, since then But she isnt a bore! You can spend an hour with her without getting bored, which is remarkable.
***
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0 1968-08-28, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ah! I noticed that the cells, everywhere, you know, constantly, all the time, were repeating, OM NAMO bhaGAVATE, OM NAMO bhaGAVATE constantly, all the time.
and OM Namo bhagavate is repeated spontaneously and automatically in a sort of hazy peace.
Image 4
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0 1968-10-26, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In a letter (see Cent. Ed., vol. 26, p. 352-353), Sri Aurobindo told the story of a yogi who could prolong his life at will (and lived for more than 200 years), but who kept the same toothache till the end, without ever being able to cure it. He was Swami Brahmananda, who, one day in the 1900s, told a disciple of his (Sardar Mazumdar), "As for the tooth, I have suffered from it since the days of bhao Girdi," that is, since 1761.
***
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0 1968-11-06, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding a visit paid by Satprem to bharatidi, an old French disciple, at the Vellore hospital where she is to be operated on. bharatidi, a member of France's Far East College, is well known for her sparkling wit and liveliness and her biting irony.)
So did you go and see bharatidi?
Yes, Mother. She is fine, this bharatidi, what force she has! And what sense of humorshe is really a queen.
Yes.
--
There was a strange relationship between my mind and hers. When I used to observe things and talk about them, I would have bharatidis voice and manner of speaking and seeing! I always wondered why, until I looked: there was a life when we were together, in a single body. That was very long ago.
Strange. It was very interesting. All of a sudden, I would speak with her voice: the sound, the words, everything was quite like her.2
--
Oh, excuse me! Youre speaking of bharatidi!
Never mind, what did you say about Kali?
--
But my reflection was regarding bharatidi. That is to say, she mustnt die, because thats a very bad place to die.
Yes. When I was hospitalized there, I had a dreadful impression.
--
(A letter from Mother to bharatidi written about 1963, at a time when Mother was not receiving any disciple, except sometimes people about to marry. bharatidi, then seventy-three, had written to Mother to ask her if she should marry to be entitled to see her.)
O bharatidi, our dearest friend!
Do not marry, that would be such a great pity for all for you would have to leave the Ashram, at least during the honeymoon.
--
Suzanne Karpels, or bharatidi, was born on March 17, 1890, in Paris.
See in Addendum a letter from Mother to bharatidi, showing well enough the sort of relationship that existed between Mother and bharatidi.
bharatidi was a specialist of Pali (used by the southern schools of Buddhism) and Sanskrit.
The painter who did a portrait of Sri Aurobindo in profile, standing.
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0 1968-11-09, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Shes gone, bharatidi.
Yes, weve been very sad.
--
Yes, but thats it. Its the whole problem coming like this: what happens when one leaves ones body? And I kept looking and looking and looking (I spent hours looking)no bharatidi. No form: a thought.
For me, its very strange, I may say that never has a beings disappearance struck me like this one. Why? I dont know.
I may say that Ive never been so occupied with someones departure as I have been with hersnever. And constantly, But what happens after death? As if Theres only thought and no form: I dont see her at allnot at all. I remember how she was physically, but I dont see her. And constantly the problem: what happens? Then I remember all my experiences, all the people Ive seen die, all my very concrete experiences. And why does it come like this: What happens after death? As if there were a sort of preoccupation: No one will ever know (I might translate it like this), no one will ever know what happened to bharatidi after her death. And its SHE, its HER thought. I cant say she, but her thought. Her thought as if she were telling me (you know how she was!), No one will ever know what happened to bharatidi after her death. Like that, with her irony.
She didnt want to come back to Pondicherry.1
--
She was an indomitable being, bharatidi.
(Mother laughs) Yes, extremely mental. Extremely mental. The vital she had dominated; the physical It was all mental, mental, mental. And with a sort of concentration in her mental being.
She must have had a bad night, it must have been difficultbecause here it was very, very difficult, and I didnt know it had to do with her. As soon as I knew, I went and saw there (I knew it in the morning), because it wasnt a good place (but she didnt care, now shes gone out of it). But then her mind, constantly, constantly: What really happens after death? And for hours! I would do something else, be busy: for hours it kept coming back. In the end (it lasted the whole day yesterday, and this morning it was still there), this morning I told her, Listen, bharatidi, be quiet, and if you are quiet, you will know. Since then, nothing anymore.
A mind so strong, and yes, essentially rebellious.
When she came to see me, it was very interesting. She would come, she was attracted; and she knew it, once she told me, Yes, I am attracted. She would sit down, take my hand, then I would see her go like this (gesture of stiffening), something was going on, going on [in bharatidi], and then all of a sudden she would get up and go.
She told me one or two words like that, but she didnt wantdidnt want to get out of her conception. So then, something strange must have happened to her: What happens after death? And it kept coming back like that: No one will ever know what happened to bharatidi after her death.
Its curious. But I finally gave her peace. I think shes better now.
--
But deep down in bharatidi, I feel something very painful. A being who suffered a lot, who was very lonely, who would have liked to love but couldnt.
She couldnt.
I feel I know bharatidi very well.
Ah?
--
In fact, to give an accurate translation of the vibrations I received (it lasted the whole day), it was, You think you know (I am translating), you think you know what happens after death? Then will you tell me what happened after bharatidis death! Like that.
Now I understand everything!
--
Thats it, I felt the pressure [of bharatidis mind], I told her, Very well, Ill give you refuge, but not to your preferences.
Very well.
--
But never before in the (how many?) ninety years of my life have I been so occupied with someones death as with hers, precisely for that reason, because she wanted to give me proof of dispersion: No one will ever know what happened to bharatidi.
I didnt tell her, That is childishness! because, as she no longer had a body, I treated her gently. But the moment, the transition was difficult painful. There was a painful moment when she felt very lonely. Mentally very lonely, of course. Physically, she had her little Krishna [her servant] there. It wasnt physical, it was mentalbecause of her conception.
--
According to her wish, bharatidi was cremated at Vellore itself. She wanted no one from the Ashram to be present at the time of her death or her funeral.
***
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0 1969-02-19, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
On January 31, 1969. Amrita was the person in charge of the Ashram's finances. bharatidi's departure (on November 7, 1968) appears to have acted as a trigger, for it was followed by Amrita's, then Pavitra's (on May 16), then Satyakarma's (Mother's cashier).... This calls to mind Satprem's vision of Sri Aurobindo, several of whose toes had been cut off, that is to say, several people. See Agenda VIII of July 5, 1967.
There will be more and more. Three months later, on May 10, Mother will say, "A considerable number of desires that it should die. Everywhere, they are everywhere!"
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0 1969-05-28, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
bhagavad Gita, 18.4.66.
"That" seems to refer to the difficulty of the present situation, but Mother may also be alluding to Pavitra's departure.
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0 1969-10-11, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its what bharatidi always said; she always used to say: The Divine is the greatest culprit, Hes the one who allows all those horrors! (Mother laughs)
She said that once when we were preparing a play to be staged here7 (I dont know if you were there). There was the chief of the mountains and the chief of the valley, and then an incarnation of the Divine. The two chiefs were quarreling; the incarnation of the Divine came, and when he tried to stop the fight, they killed him. When they killed him, all of a sudden they woke up to the awareness of the horror of what they had done, owing to the fact of the killing. You see, night fell when they began fighting, and the Incarnation came between them to stop them, but they didnt see him and killed him. The story was like that, we staged it. We gave out the roles and so onwe had got the play through bharatidi. So she was there, and she told me, But the Divine is the greatest culprit! Its quite natural that he should suffer, since Hes the one who allowed humans to be like that! (Mother laughs)
Ah!
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0 1969-10-25, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Have you seen brother A?1 He has changed a lota lot. Hes incomparably better than before. He went to stay with Buddhists, it seems. He was supposed to go to Vinoba bhaves place, but I dont think he stayed there, because he is coming from a Buddhist monastery.
But he remains as Christian as before, doesnt he?
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0 1970-02-07, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I remember that poor bharatidi (she was a rebel), once, long ago, we prepared together a play to be staged, and one day she told me (we were with all those who were going to play), To think that God sees all this and tolerates it! (Mother laughs) I told her, Maybe he doesnt see it as we do!
I found it amusing because she was a very intelligent woman. But that (Mother laughs).
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0 1970-03-21, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
407I am not a bhakta [lover of the Divine], for I have not renounced the world for God. How can I renounce what He took from me by force and gave back to me against my will? These things are too hard for me.
(Mother laughs) So T. asks me what he means. Then, there is another.
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0 1970-04-29, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
An old and very faithful disciple whose body was found on the beach. This is the continuation of the series that began with bharatidi, then Amrita, Pavitra.... Rishabhch and was the author of Sri AurobindoHis Life Unique.
Astha is nine year old.
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0 1970-06-17, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The ways of the Divine are not like those of the human mind or according to our patterns and it is impossible to judge them or to lay down for Him what He shall or shall not do, for the Divine knows better than we can know. If we admit the Divine at all, both true reason and bhakti seem to me to be at one in demanding implicit faith and surrender.
Letters on Yoga, 23.596
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0 1971-08-28, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So, quite naturally, the most interesting thing is to find That. Quite naturally, whenever I have nothing to do (gesture of interiorization, curled up in the Lord). Thats why I am forever asking you if you have questions or something, because there is no longer any person to be active, its only the things which (gesture indicating the movements and vibrations of people or things triggering Mothers activity). So when thats not there, its (gesture in suspense, silence). Very far, far off quite close, quite close to the other Consciousness, there are moments (Mother speaks in a deep, solemn voice): OM Namo bhagavateh. Thats the most material thing. Its already it seems so lifeless. It gives the impression that a piece of wood might give us. And yet its. So at one and the same time one can be in a painful and incomprehensible and absurd life and absolutely at the same time unutterably marvelous.
So naturally I cant speak to anyone anymore, I can say it only to you, because people would think I am going nuts.
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0 1972-01-29, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I cant say. I dont remember. Someone who was also going to be executed. There were also many children. Then I heard a sort of great chant (many people were gathered there, it was time for the execution), like a mantra rising up from each of us, like this: OM Namo bhagavate Sri Arabindaye.
Ah!
--
No, Mother, it went away because we were chanting Sri Aurobindos name. [Sujata sings:] OM Namo bhagavate Sri Arabindaye.
Yes, exactly. Exactly. But its true, mon petit! That was good.
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0 1972-02-09, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its interesting. When I am quiet, I hear a kind of great chantalmost a collective chant, I could say: OM Namo bhagavateh . As if all of Nature went (rising gesture): OM Namo bhagavateh
(Mother goes into contemplation)
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0 1972-10-28, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I wanted to ask you something. You know the mantra I gave you, I dont remember if the last word is bhagavatee or bhagavateh?
bhagavateh, Mother.
Ah, bhagavateh! (Mother repeats the mantra) OM Namo bhagavateh like that.
Yes, Mother.
--
Ive found but one solution: What You want, Lord, what You want. And what comes up from the subconscient is constantly met by: OM namo bhagavateh, OM.
(meditation)
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0 1972-12-23, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So my one external resourceEXTERNALLYis to say the mantra: OM Namo bhagavateh (its an external part of myself that says it); but inside, I am like this (Mother opens her hands upward in total stillness). And now if I remain like that, hours may go by, and I wont know it.
Whats the time?
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0 1973-01-24, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
OM Namo bhagavateh?
bhagavateh, yes, Mother.
(Mother plunges in. The clock strikes an eternal hour)
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0 1973-03-14, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I will tell you my old mantra. It keeps the outer being very tranquil: OM, Namo, bhagavateh. Three words.
To me they meant:
--
bhagavateh: Make me divine.
(silence)
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0 1973-03-17, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So I ask myself, What? And externally I see but one solution: externally I repeat OM Namo bhagavateh. Constantly thats for the outer being. And inside (gesture, hands open in immobile contemplation)
(silence)
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0 1973-03-28, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Things are tolerable only when I am turned exclusively towards the Divine and the material consciousness repeats, OM Namo bhagavateh Like that. Like a backdrop to everything.
OM Namo bhagavateh
You know, a backdrop you can use as a physical support.
OM Namo bhagavateh
(Mother plunges in for 40 minutes)
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0 1973-05-05, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
OM Namo bhagavateh
(then she sinks into a deep contemplation for half an hour)
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02.03 - An Aspect of Emergent Evolution, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In Indian terminology, it would be the advent of the Purna bhagavan in the human bodymnusm tanumsritam. All previous Avatars are only a preparation for the coming of this Supreme Divine. It is said also that the present epoch marks a crucial turn and transition. We await the Kalki Avatar who will wipe off the past, the Iron Age, and bring in the Golden Age, Satya Yuga.
A question inevitably arises herewhat next? Once the evolutionary movement has reached the apex, does it stop there? After the apex, the Void? I t need not be so. The completion of the pyramid would mean simply the end of a particular order of creation, the creation in Ignorance. This is, indeed, what Sri Aurobindo envisages in his conception of the creation in supramental Gnosis. The evolutionary nisus, on its arrival at the apex, according to him crosses a borderland, leaps into another order of the world, of infinite Truth-Consciousness. Thereafter another new creation starts the building perhaps of another pyramid (if we want to continue the metaphor). The progression Of the evolutionary course is naturally expected to be an unending series. The pyramids rise tier upon tier ad infinitum. Only it is to be noted that in the basic pyramid the evolution starts from inconscience and moves from more ignorance to less ignorance through a gradually lessening density of darkness until the apex is reached where all shade of darkness is eliminated for ever. Beyond there is no mixture, however thin and diluted: it is a movement from light to light, from one expression of it to another, perhaps richer, but of the same quality.
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02.08 - The Basic Unity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A firm physical unity presupposes, at least posits the possibility of an integral unity. Otherwise the body itself would tend to break up and disintegrate. Such physical cataclysms are not unknown in Nature. However, a geographical unity cannot remain exclusively limited to itself; it brings about other unities by the very pressure, by the capillary action, as it were, of the boundary. The first unity that is called into being is the economic. A Zollverein (Customs Union) has almost always been the starting-point of a national union. Next or along with it comes the political unity. India's political and economic unity has been the great work of the British rule, however that rule might be distasteful to us. It is an illustration of Nature's method of compulsion and violence, when man's voluntary effort fails. India possesses a resounding roll of great names who endeavoured to give her this solid political and economic unity; bharata, Yudhishthira, Asoka, Chandragupta, Akbar, Shivaji have all contri buted to the evergrowing unification of Indian polity. But still what they realised was not a stable and permanent thing, it was yet fluent and uncertain; it was only the hammerblow, the plastering, as one would say today, from an outside agency that welded, soldered and fixed that unity.
Fissures of late have opened again and they seem to be increasing in depth and width and in number. What appeared to be a unified structure, of one piece, whole and entire, now threatens to crash and fall to pieces. We are asked to deny the unity. The political unity, it is said, is an impossibility, the geographical unity an illusion.
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02.10 - Independence and its Sanction, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Independence is not a gift which one can receive from another, it is a prize that has to be won. In the words of the poet bhasa, used in respect of empire, we can say also of liberty:
Talloke na tu yacyate na tu punardinaya diyate
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02.11 - Hymn to Darkness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Ramprasad the bhakta thus speaks of Kali, his dark Mother: the poem itself is very dark, that is to say, the meaning is dark, and the style, the phrasing is darker still. A literal translation is out of question. A very free rendering is only possible:
I have brooded over it and I am utterly confused;
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02.13 - Rabindranath and Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
So it was natural and almost inevitablewritten among the stars that both should meet once more on this physical earth. Sri Aurobindo had been in complete retirement seeing none except, of course, his attendants. He was coming out only four times in the year to give silent darshan to his devotees and a few others who sought for it. It was in the year 1928. Tagore was then on a tour to the South. He expressed to Sri Aurobindo by letter his desire for a personal meeting. Sri Aurobindo naturally agreed to receive him. Tagore reached Pondicherry by steamer, and I had the privilege to see him on board the ship and escort him to the Ashram. The Mother welcomed him at the door of Sri Aurobindo's apartments and led him to Sri Aurobindo. Tagore already knew the Mother, for both were together in Japan and stayed in the same house and she attended some of his lectures in that country. It may be interesting to mention here that Tagore requested the Mother to take charge of the Visva bharati, for evidently he felt that the future of his dear institution would be in sure hands. But the Mother could not but decline since it was her destiny to be at another place and another work.
What transpired between them is not for me to say, the meeting being a private one. But I may quote here what Tagore himself wrote about it subsequently:
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03.05 - The Spiritual Genius of India, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
All other nations have this one, or that other, line of self-expression, special to each; but it is India's characteristic not to have had any such single and definite modus Vivendiwhat was single and definite in her case was a mode not of living but of being. India looked above all to the very self in things; and in all her life-expression it was the soul per se which mattered to her,even as the-great Yajnavalkya said to his wife Maitreyi,tmanastu kmay sarvam priyam bhavati. The expressions of the self had no intrinsic value of their own and mattered only so far as they symbolised or embodied or pointed to the secret reality of the Atman. And perhaps it was on this account that India's creative activities, even in external life, were once upon a time so rich and varied, so stupendous and, full of marvel. Because she was attached and limited to no one dominating power of life, she could create infinite forms, so many channels of power for the soul whose realisation was her end and aim.
There was no department of life or culture in which it could be said of India that she was not great, or even, in a way, supreme. From hard practical politics touching our earth, to the nebulous regions of abstract metaphysics, everywhere India expressed the power of her genius equally well. And yet none of these, neither severally nor collectively, constituted her specific genius; none showed the full height to which she could raise herself, none compassed the veritable amplitude of her innermost reality. It is when we come to the domain of the Spirit, of God-realisation that we find the real nature and stature and genius of the Indian people; it is here that India lives and moves as in her own home of Truth. The greatest and the most popular names in Indian history are not names of warriors or statesmen, nor of poets who were only poets, nor of mere intellectual philosophers, however great they might be, but of Rishis, who saw and lived the Truth and communed with the gods, of Avataras who brought down and incarnated here below something of the supreme realities beyond.
The most significant fact in the history of India is the unbroken continuity of the line of her spiritual masters who never ceased to appear even in the midst of her most dark and distressing ages. Even in a decadent and fast disintegrating India, when the whole of her external life was a mass of ruins, when her political and economical and even her cultural life was brought to stagnation and very near to decomposition, this undying Fire in her secret heart was ever alight and called in the inevitable rebirth and rejuvenation. Ramakrishna, with Vivekananda as his emanation in life dynamic and material, symbolises this great secret of India's evolution. The promise that the Divine held out in the Gita to bharata's descendant finds a ready fulfilment in India, in bharata's land, more perhaps than anywhere else in the world; for in India has the. Divine taken birth over and over again to save the pure in heart, to destroy the evil-doer and to establish the Right Law of life.
Other peoples may be the arms and the feet and the head of Humanity, but India is its heart, its soul for she cherishes always within her the Truth that lives for ever, the flaming God-head, the Immortal awake in mortality, as say the Vedas, amto martyeu tv .
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03.14 - Mater Dolorosa, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
If, on the contrary, any part of us belongs to the Inferior Nature, even if the larger part dwells in some higher status of Nature, even then we are not immune to the attacks that come from the inferior Nature. Those whom we usually call pious or virtuous or honest have still a good part of them imbedded in the Lower Nature, in various degrees they are yet its vassals; they owe allegiance to the three gunas, be it even to sattwasattwa is also a movement in Inferior Nature; they are not free. Has not Sri Krishna said: Traigunyaviayved nistraigunyo bhavrjuna1? only thing we must remember is that freedom from the gunas does not necessarily mean an absolute cessation of the play of Prakriti. Being in the gunas we must know how to purify and change them, transmute them into the higher and divine potentials.
This is a counsel of perfection, one would say. But there is no other way out. If humanity is to be saved, if it is at all to progress, it can be only in this direction. Buddha's was no less a counsel of perfection. He saw the misery of man, the three great maladies inherent in life and his supreme compassion led him to the discovery of a remedy, a radical remedy,indeed it could remove the malady altogether, for it removed the patient also. What we propose is, in this sense, something less drastic. Ours is not a path of escape, although that too needs heroism, but of battle and conquest and lordship.
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04.01 - The March of Civilisation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Turning to India we find a fuller and completerif not a globalpicture of the whole movement. India, we may say, is the spiritual world itself: and she epitomised the curve of human progress in a clearer and more significant manner. Indian history, not its political but its cultural and spiritual history, divides itself naturally into great movements with corresponding epochs each dwelling upon and dealing with one domain in the hierarchy of man's consciousness. The stages and epochs are well known: they are(l) Vedic, (2) Upanishadic, (3) Darshanasroughly from Buddha to Shankara, (4) Puranic, (5) bhagavataor the Age of bhakti, and finally (6) the Tantric. The last does not mean that it is the latest revelation, the nearest to us in time, but that it represents a kind of complementary movement, it was there all along, for long at least, and in which the others find their fruition and consummation. We shall explain presently. The force of consciousness that came and moved and moulded the first and the earliest epoch was Revelation. It was a power of direct vision and occult will and cosmic perception. Its physical seat is somewhere behind and or just beyond the crown of the head: the peak of man's manifest being that received the first touch of Surya Savitri (the supreme Creative Consciousness) to whom it bowed down uttering the invocation mantra of Gayatri. The Ray then entered the head at the crown and illumined it: the force of consciousness that ruled there is Intuition, the immediate perception of truth and reality, the cosmic consciousness gathered and concentrated at that peak. That is Upanishadic knowledge. If the source and foundation of the Vedic initiation was occult vision, the Upanishad meant a pure and direct Ideation. The next stage in the coming down or propagation of the Light was when it reached further down into the brain and the philosophical outlook grew with rational understanding and discursive argumentation as the channel for expression, the power to be cultivated and the limb to be developed. The Age of the Darshanas or Systems of Philosophy started with the Buddha and continued till it reached its peak in Shankaracharya. The age sought to give a bright and strong mental, even an intellectual body to the spiritual light, the consciousness of the highest truth and reality. In the Puranic Age the vital being was touched by the light of the spirit and principally on the highest, the mental level of that domain. It meant the advent of the element of feeling and emotiveness and imagination into the play of the Light, the beginning of their reclamation. This was rendered more concrete and more vibrant and intense in the next stage of the movement. The whole emotional being was taken up into the travailing crucible of consciousness. We may name it also as the age of the bhagavatas, god-lovers, bhaktas. It reached its climax in Chaitanya whose physical passion for God denoted that the lower ranges of the vital being (its physical foundations) were now stirred in man to awake and to receive the Light. Finally remains the physical, the most material to be worked upon and made conscious and illumined. That was the task of the Tantras. Viewed in that light one can easily understand why especial stress was laid in that system upon the esoteric discipline of the five m's (pancha makra),all preoccupied with the handling and harnessing of the grossest physical instincts and the most material instruments. The Tantric discipline bases itself upon Nature Power coiled up in Matter: the release of that all-conquering force through a purification and opening into the consciousness of the Divine Mother, the transcendent creatrix of the universe. The dynamic materialising aspect of consciousness was what inspired the Tantras: the others forming the Vedantic line, on the whole, were based on the primacy of the static being, the Purusha, aloof and withdrawing.
The Indian consciousness, we say, presented the movement as an intensive and inner, a spiritual process: it dealt with the substance itself, man's very nature and sought to know it from within and shape it consciously. In Europe where the frontal consciousness is more stressed and valued, the more characteristic feature of its history is the unfoldment and metamorphosis of the forms and expressions, the residuary powers, as it were, of man's evolving personality, individual and social.
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05.12 - The Soul and its Journey, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The higher Gods, like those, for example, envisaged in the Veda, may be considered each as an emanation of one or other of these Divine Aspects. They are dwellers of Swar or the Overmind. Varuna seems to be an emanation of Mahavira, a son of Maheshwari: for he is pre-eminently the god of the pure and vast consciousness who releases us from the triple bonds and shows us the winding way into the embrace of the infinite Mother. His associate, Mitra, is the lord of love and harmony, evidently an emanation of Pradyumna (or Mahalakshmi). Other gods of the same category are bhaga and Soma. The Balarama or Mahakali aspect is manifested in Aryaman: Rudra being another form of the same. And Mahasaraswati (or Aniruddha) must have given birth to and inspired the Ribhus, who are artisans of divinity. The Puranic trinityBrahma, Vishnu and Shivawith lndra as the fourth member forms a parallel system embodying a similar conception.
Another tradition gives the Four Supernals as (1) Light or Consciousness, (2) Truth or Knowledge, (3) Life and (4) Love. The tradition also says that the beings representing these four fundamental principles of creation were the first and earliest gods that emanated from the Supreme Divine, and that as they separated themselves from their source and from each other, each followed his own independent line of fulfilment, they lost their divinity and turned into their oppositesLight became obscurity, Consciousness unconsciousness or the inconscient, Truth became falsehood and Knowledge ignorance, Life became death and finally Love and Delight became suffering and hatred. These are the fallen angels, the Asuras that deny their divine essence and now rule the world. They have possessed mankind and are controlling earthly existence. They too have their emanations, forces and beings that are born out of them and serve them in their various degrees of power. Men talk and act inspired and impelled by these beings and when they do so, they lose their humanity and become worse than animals.
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05.21 - Being or Becoming and Having, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Again, in this ceaseless continuity of progression it is indeed not necessary at all to stop a while or somewhere and become something for one's perfection or fulfilment. The normal ideal that is placed before man or which he himself seeks is that he should become something, a definite pattern of some particular achievement, and possess something in the sense of an acquisition. An ordinary man must have an occupation and even an extraordinary man, the saint or the sage, must embody, that is to say, enchain himself in the name and form of a particular realisationa siddhnta or a siddhi. A man has to be -a soldier, a merchant, a politician or a poet, a philosopher: even so he has to be a bhaktaor a jni, a maunior a vksiddha. Each human being should have a ticket and a roll number, an identity card. Now, for the soul of man none of these or other adjuncts are necessary: its progress and its growth are independent of such auxiliaries or correlates. A soul can be and even express itself perfectly at the highest point of its being without formulating itself, binding itself in a scheme of some external achievement or functioning. The soul need not possess any of the gloriesaiwaryasto realise itself, in order to be the abode of the Divine. Its very existence is full to the brim of the substance of the truth and its simple living marks the law or rhythm of that Truth.
A soulful man, whatever he says, thinks, feels or acts, always embodies wholly the Divine. Not that because he says, acts, thinks or feels in a certain manner that he has attained perfection or is in dynamic union with the summit a d integral consciousness. As the Mother brings out the distinction, although in a somewhat different context, the perfect soul-existence .cannot be judged by the forms it takes, the forms themselves have to be judged by the soul-existence.
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10.02 - Beyond Vedanta, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The relation between the Supreme (over and above the creation) and the individual in the creation representing the creation is sometimes described in human terms to give it a concrete and graphic form. This relationship characteristically indicates the fundamental nature of the Reality it deals with. Thus in the Vedantic tradition the Supreme is worshipped as the Father (pit no asi). It is also a relation of Master and disciple, the leader and the led. Ii brings out into prominence the Purusha aspect of the Reality. In the Tantra the relation is as between Mother and child. The supreme Reality is the Divine Mother holding the universe in her arms. The individual worships and adores the Supreme Prakriti as a human child does. The Vaishnava makes the relation as between the lover and the beloved, and the love depicted is intensely vital and even physical, as intense and poignant as the ordinary ignorant human passion. It is to show that the Love Divine can beat the human love on its own ground, that is to say, it can be or it is as passionately sweet and as intensely intimate as any human love. It is why bhakta Prahlad said to his beloved Vishnu "O Lord, what ordinary men feel and enjoy in and through their physical senses, may I have the same enjoyment in and through Thee."
Still the Vaishnava love in its concrete reality is a manifestation in a subtle world, the world of an inner physical consciousness.
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10.04 - Lord of Time, #Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Krishnakaya Jaganmata Samadhistha bhabe 6
Silence-honeycomb star sail
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10.04 - Transfiguration, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Agni is the energy of consciousness, Varuna is the vastness of consciousness, Mitra is the harmony. Ila is the revelation, Saraswati inspiration, bharati is the Goddess of the Divine Word.
In the mental world we meet abstractions, lifeless ideas, forms without a soul. In reality, however, all movements in man, all forces in nature are more than mere movements and forces, they are personalities, embodiments of conscious beings. Indeed the Puranic tradition has elaborated this conception almost to its extreme limit. Those people crowded the world with an infinite number of Gods and Goddesses. They speak of 33 crores of Gods. The earth is the playfield of all godlings.
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10.07 - The Demon, #Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Old bhangi tuti new attempt 6
6 blind men deceived by Brahmins
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1.00 - Preliminary Remarks, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
In the bhagavadgita a vision of this class is naturally attributed to the apparition of Vishnu, who was the local god of the period. Anna Kingsford, who had dabbled in Hebrew mysticism, and was a feminist, got an almost identical vision; but called the divine figure which she saw alternately Adonai and Maria.
Now this woman, though handicapped by a brain that was a mass of putrid pulp, and a complete lack of social status, education, and moral character, did more in the religious world than any other person had done for generations. She, and she alone, made Theosophy possible, and without Theosophy the world-wide interest in similar matters could never have been aroused. This interest is to the Law of Thelema what the preaching of John the Baptist was to Christianity.
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1.010 - Self-Control - The Alpha and Omega of Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Transcendence is different from giving up. When we transcend a condition, we do not reject that condition as something necessary or unnecessary, but absorb that condition into a higher nature, include it in our higher condition and make it a part of our experience, so that nothing is lost but everything is found in a more real form. So in the practice of yoga, nothing is lost. Nehbhikramanso'sti pratyavyo na vidyate (B.G. II.40), says the bhagavadgita. There is no loss in the practice of yoga; always there is a gain. And no question of sin arises here. If we do it well, so much the better for us. If we cannot do it well, there is no sin in it; the only thing is, we have not got what we wanted. Such is the impartiality and the genuine character of this wonderful practice called yoga.
Previously we were touching upon the nature of perceptions of objects, and these were explained as the reasons behind our attachments and aversions, our love of individual physical life and dread of death, etc. It was also discovered that self-affirmation or egoism becomes a necessary link, an intermediary between the external acts of cognition, perception, attachment, aversion etc., and the ultimate cause of the appearance of this phenomenon, of which we have no knowledge. This phenomenon was explained also as having been caused by a vast multiple manifestation of the Ultimate Reality in the form of what we may call 'located individuals', as if one is not connected with the other, so that each individual which was originally an inseparable part of the Ultimate Truth or Reality, enjoying the status of pure selfhood or subjectivity got distorted into an object of the cognitive act and perceptive action of the senses, so that it is possible to regard any person and any object in this world either as a subject from its own point of view, or as an object from another's point of view. It is this peculiar double character, or dual role, of persons and things in this world that has made life difficult. Which is the correct attitude: to regard things as subjects, or regard them as objects? Well, the correct attitude would be to regard everything as it ought to be regarded from the point of view of what it really is.
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1.012 - Sublimation - A Way to Reshuffle Thought, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
In our system, the culture of bharatvarsha, four aims of existence are always emphasised dharma, artha, kama and moksha. None of them can be ignored. There are people who are fired up with an enthusiasm for moksha, and under this impulse of a love for moksha or salvation of the soul, an immature mind may apply the wrong technique of forcing the will to abandon the real values of life, namely dharma, artha and kama, under the impression that they are obstacles to the salvation of the soul or the liberation of the spirit. Most people commit this mistake, and so they achieve neither anything in this world nor anything in the other world they live a miserable life. They have not been properly instructed, and so have taken a wrong direction altogether.
The culture of yoga does not tell us to reject, abandon, or to cut off anything if it is real, because the whole question is an assessment of values, and reality is, of course, the background of every value. What is achieved in spiritual education is a rise of consciousness from a lower degree of reality to a higher degree of reality, and in no degree is there a rejection of reality. It is only a growth from a lower level to a higher one. So when we go to the higher degree of reality, we are not rejecting the lower degree of reality, but rather we have overcome it. We have transcended it, just as when a student goes to a higher class in an educational career, that higher class transcends the lower degrees of kindergarten, first standard, second standard and third standard, but it does not reject them. Rejection is not what is implied; rather it is an absorption of values into a higher inclusive condition of understanding, insight and education.
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1.013 - Defence Mechanisms of the Mind, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
In the bhagavadgita, we have a hint of the method of self control where, in a very cryptic sloka, bhagavan Sri Krishna says that the senses are turbulent and cannot be easily controlled unless resort is taken to a higher principle than the senses themselves: indriyi paryhurindriyebhya para mana, manasastu par buddhiryo buddhe paratastu sa (B.G. III.42). This is the verse which is relevant to this subject. The senses cannot be controlled because they are driven by a force which is behind them. As long as they are driven, pushed or compelled by a power that is behind them, they will naturally act in the direction of that push. So we have to exert some kind of pressure upon the power that is driving the senses towards objects. Otherwise, it would be like ordering the servants to work in a particular way while their master is saying something else which is contrary to our advice to the servants. We have to approach the master himself so that he may not direct the servants in a wrong manner or say something undesirable to them. So there is a master behind the senses, and unless this master is approached, the senses cannot be controlled. For all immediate purposes, we can regard the mind as the master and the senses as the servants. The senses cannot be controlled if the mind is not properly tackled, because the mind is the force that urges the senses towards objects. But there is a difficulty in controlling even the mind, because the mind orders the senses to move towards objects, on account of a misconception, so unless this misconception is removed we cannot do anything with the mind.
As discussed previously, a sense of reality harasses the mind in respect of the objects of sense, and as long as anything appears as real, it cannot be abrogated or rejected; and we cannot close our eyes to it if it has already been declared to be real. The mind will find difficulty in withdrawing its orders to the senses in respect of their movement towards objects as long as it cognises a worthwhile reality in the objects of sense. Why does the mind see a sense of reality in the objects of sense? It is due to a peculiar situation that has arisen, which is the reason behind why the mind is accepting these perceptions through the senses.
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1.01 - An Accomplished Westerner, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
Humanly speaking, Sri Aurobindo is close to us, because once we have respectfully bowed before the "wisdom of the East" and the odd ascetics who seem to make light of all our fine laws, we find that our curiosity has been aroused but not our life; we need a practical truth that will survive our rugged winters. Sri Aurobindo knew our winters well; he experienced them as a student, from the age of seven until twenty. He lived from one lodging house to another at the whim of more or less benevolent landladies, with one meal a day, and not even an overcoat to put on his back, but always laden with books: the French symbolists, Mallarm, Rimbaud, whom he read in the original French long before reading the bhagavad Gita in translation. To us Sri Aurobindo personifies a unique synthesis.
He was born in Calcutta on August 15, 1872, the year of Rimbaud's Illuminations, just a few years before Einstein; modern physics had already seen the light of day with Max Planck, and Jules Verne was busy probing the future. Yet, Queen Victoria was about to become Empress of India, and the conquest of Africa was not even completed; it was the turning point from one world to another.
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1.01 - Economy, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
I certain it is desirable that there should be. However, _I_ should never have broken a horse or bull and taken him to board for any work he might do for me, for fear I should become a horse-man or a herds-man merely; and if society seems to be the gainer by so doing, are we certain that what is one mans gain is not anothers loss, and that the stable-boy has equal cause with his master to be satisfied? Granted that some public works would not have been constructed without this aid, and let man share the glory of such with the ox and horse; does it follow that he could not have accomplished works yet more worthy of himself in that case? When men begin to do, not merely unnecessary or artistic, but luxurious and idle work, with their assistance, it is inevitable that a few do all the exchange work with the oxen, or, in other words, become the slaves of the strongest. Man thus not only works for the animal within him, but, for a symbol of this, he works for the animal without him. Though we have many substantial houses of brick or stone, the prosperity of the farmer is still measured by the degree to which the barn overshadows the house. This town is said to have the largest houses for oxen, cows, and horses hereabouts, and it is not behindh and in its public buildings; but there are very few halls for free worship or free speech in this county. It should not be by their architecture, but why not even by their power of abstract thought, that nations should seek to commemorate themselves? How much more admirable the bhagvat-Geeta than all the ruins of the East! Towers and temples are the luxury of princes. A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince. Genius is not a retainer to any emperor, nor is its material silver, or gold, or marble, except to a trifling extent. To what end, pray, is so much stone hammered? In
Arcadia, when I was there, I did not see any hammering stone. Nations are possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave. What if equal pains were taken to smooth and polish their manners? One piece of good sense would be more memorable than a monument as high as the moon. I love better to see stones in place. The grandeur of Thebes was a vulgar grandeur. More sensible is a rod of stone wall that bounds an honest mans field than a hundred-gated Thebes that has wandered farther from the true end of life. The religion and civilization which are barbaric and hea thenish build splendid temples; but what you might call
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1.01f - Introduction, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
Mahvikramin, Anantavikramin, Trailokyavikrama, bhadrapla, Maitreya,
Ratnkara, and Susthavha. There were altogether eighty thousand such bodhisattva mahsattvas.
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At that time the bhagavat was respectfully surrounded by the fourfold assembly (i.e., monks, nuns, laymen, laywomen), paid homage, honored, and praised. He then taught the bodhisattvas the Mahayana sutra called
Immeasurable Meanings (Mahnirdea), the instruction for the bodhisattvas and the treasured lore of the buddhas. After having taught this sutra, the
--
At that moment it occurred to Bodhisattva Maitreya: The bhagavat has now manifested the sign of great transcendent power. What could be the reason for this marvel? The Buddha, the bhagavat, has now entered samdhi.
Whom should I ask about this wonderful marvel? Who would be able to answer my question?
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Why did the bhagavat emit this ray of light?
O Heir of the Buddhas, now answer!
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Buddha, the bhagavat, will now teach the great Dharma, rain down the great
Dharma, blow the conch of the great Dharma, beat the drum of the great
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Teacher of Devas and Humans, Buddha, bhagavat. He taught the True
Dharma that was good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end. It was profound in meaning, elegant in speech, and endowed with the character of the pure path of discipline and integrity.
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Then there was another buddha named Candrasryapradpa, and after him another buddha also named Candrasryapradpa. And so in this way twenty thousand buddhas all had the same name Candrasryapradpa. They also had the same family name bharadvja.
O Maitreya! You should know that these buddhas, beginning from the
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This bhagavat taught the Dharma,
Leading and inspiring innumerable sentient beings
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Each bhagavat appeared like a golden image
In the midst of lapis lazuli,
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The bhagavat praised Varapra bha, delighting him,
And taught this Lotus Sutra
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All the sons of the bhagavat,
On hearing that the Buddha was to enter nirvana,
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1.01 - Hatha Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
28. Sitali Pranayama cools your body and purifies the blood. bhastrika warms your body and removes asthma and consumption.
29. Practise bhandatraya Pranayama. It includes Mula-Bandha or contraction of anus, Jalandara-Bandha or chin-lock and Uddiyana-Bandha, drawing the belly backwards at the end of exhalation.
30. Maha Mudra is an important Mudra. This removes piles, enlargement of spleen, indigestion, constipation.
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1.01 - Maitreya inquires of his teacher (Parashara), #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
[14]: Purāṇa sanhitā kerttā bhavān bha p. 6 viṣyati. You shall be a maker of the Sanhitā, or compendium of the Purāṇas, or of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, considered as a summary or compendium of Pauranic traditions. In either sense it is incompatible with the general attribution of all the Purāṇas to Vyāsa.
[15]: Whether performing the usual ceremonies of the Brahmans, or leading a life of devotion and penance, which supersedes the necessity of rites and sacrifices.
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1.01 - MASTER AND DISCIPLE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
As he left the room with Sidhu, he heard the sweet music of the evening service arising in the temple from gong, bell, drum, and cymbal. He could hear music from the nahabat, too, at the south end of the garden. The sounds travelled over the Ganges, floating away and losing themselves in the distance. A soft spring wind was blowing, laden with the fragrance of flowers; the moon had just appeared. It was as if nature and man together were preparing for the evening worship. M. and Sidhu visited the twelve Siva temples, the Radhakanta temple, and the temple of bhavatarini. And as M.
watched the services before the images his heart was filled with joy.
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Sri Ramakrishna asked them: "Where do you live? What is your occupation? Why have you come to Baranagore?" M. answered the questions, but he noticed that now and then the Master seemed to become absent-minded. Later he learnt that this mood is called bhava, ecstasy. It is like the state of the angler who has been sitting with his rod: the fish comes and swallows the bait, and the float begins to tremble; the angler is on the alert; he grips the rod and watches the float steadily and eagerly; he will not speak to anyone. Such was the state of Sri Ramakrishna's mind. Later M. heard, and himself noticed, that Sri Ramakrishna would often go into this mood after dusk, sometimes becoming totally unconscious of the outer world.
M: "Perhaps you want to perform your evening worship. In that case may we take our leave?"
--
The next day, too, was a holiday for M. He arrived at Dakshineswar at three o'clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was in his room; Narendra, bhavanath, and a few other devotees were sitting on a mat spread on the floor. They were all young men of nineteen or twenty. Seated on the small couch, Sri Ramakrishna was talking with them and smiling.
No sooner had M. entered the room than the Master laughed aloud and said to the boys, "There! He has come again." They all joined in the laughter. M. bowed low before him and took a seat. Before this he had saluted the Master with folded hands, like one with an English education. But that day he learnt to fall down at his feet in orthodox Hindu fashion.
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1.01 - Prayer, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
DEFINITION OF bhaKTI
bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning, continuing, and ending in love. One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom. " bhakti", says Nrada in his explanation of the bhakti-aphorisms, "is intense love to God"; "When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none; he becomes satisfied for ever"; "This love cannot be reduced to any earthly benefit", because so long as worldly desires last, that kind of love does not come; " bhakti is greater than karma, greater than Yoga, because these are intended for an object in view, while bhakti is its own fruition, its own means and its own end."
bhakti has been the one constant theme of our sages. Apart from the special writers on bhakti, such as Shndilya or Narada, the great commentators on the Vysa-Sutras, evidently advocates of knowledge (Jnna), have also something very suggestive to say about love. Even when the commentator is anxious to explain many, if not all, of the texts so as to make them import a sort of dry knowledge, the Sutras, in the chapter on worship especially, do not lend themselves to be easily manipulated in that fashion.
There is not really so much difference between knowledge (Jnana) and love ( bhakti) as people sometimes imagine. We shall see, as we go on, that in the end they converge and meet at the same point. So also is it with Rja-Yoga, which when pursued as a means to attain liberation, and not (as unfortunately it frequently becomes in the hands of charlatans and mystery-mongers) as an instrument to hoodwink the unwary, leads us also to the same goal.
The one great advantage of bhakti is that it is the easiest and the most natural way to reach the great divine end in view; its great disadvantage is that in its lower forms it oftentimes degenerates into hideous fanaticism. The fanatical crew in Hinduism, or Mohammedanism, or Christianity, have always been almost exclusively recruited from these worshippers on the lower planes of bhakti. That singleness of attachment (Nishth) to a loved object, without which no genuine love can grow, is very often also the cause of the denunciation of everything else. All the weak and undeveloped minds in every religion or country have only one way of loving their own ideal, i.e. by hating every other ideal.
Herein is the explanation of why the same man who is so lovingly attached to his own ideal of God, so devoted to his own ideal of religion, becomes a howling fanatic as soon as he sees or hears anything of any other ideal. This kind of love is somewhat like the canine instinct of guarding the master's property from intrusion; only, the instinct of the dog is better than the reason of man, for the dog never mistakes its master for an enemy in whatever dress he may come before it. Again, the fanatic loses all power of judgment. Personal considerations are in his case of such absorbing interest that to him it is no question at all what a man says whether it is right or wrong; but the one thing he is always particularly careful to know is who says it. The same man who is kind, good, honest, and loving to people of his own opinion, will not hesitate to do the vilest deeds when they are directed against persons beyond the pale of his own religious brotherhood.
But this danger exists only in that stage of bhakti which is called the preparatory (Gauni). When bhakti has become ripe and has passed into that form which is called the supreme (Par), no more is there any fear of these hideous manifestations of fanaticism; that soul which is overpowered by this higher form of bhakti is too near the God of Love to become an instrument for the diffusion of hatred.
It is not given to all of us to be harmonious in the building up of our characters in this life: yet we know that that character is of the noblest type in which all these three knowledge and love and Yoga are harmoniously fused. Three things are necessary for a bird to fly the two wings and the tail as a rudder for steering. Jnana (Knowledge) is the one wing, bhakti (Love) is the other, and Yoga is the tail that keeps up the balance. For those who cannot pursue all these three forms of worship together in harmony and take up, therefore, bhakti alone as their way, it is necessary always to remember that forms and ceremonials, though absolutely necessary for the progressive soul, have no other value than taking us on to that state in which we feel the most intense love to God.
There is a little difference in opinion between the teachers of knowledge and those of love, though both admit the power of bhakti. The Jnanis hold bhakti to be an instrument of liberation, the bhaktas look upon it both as the instrument and the thing to be attained. To my mind this is a distinction without much difference. In fact, bhakti, when used as an instrument, really means a lower form of worship, and the higher form becomes inseparable from the lower form of realisation at a later stage. Each seems to lay a great stress upon his own peculiar method of worship, forgetting that with perfect love true knowledge is bound to come even unsought, and that from perfect knowledge true love is inseparable.
Bearing this in mind let us try to understand what the great Vedantic commentators have to say on the subject. In explaining the Sutra vrittirasakridupadesht (Meditation is necessary, that having been often enjoined.), bhagavn Shankara says, "Thus people say, 'He is devoted to the king, he is devoted to the Guru'; they say this of him who follows his Guru, and does so, having that following as the one end in view. Similarly they say, 'The loving wife meditates on her loving husband'; here also a kind of eager and continuous remembrance is meant." This is devotion according to Shankara.
"Meditation again is a constant remembrance (of the thing meditated upon) flowing like an unbroken stream of oil poured out from one vessel to another. When this kind of remembering has been attained (in relation to God) all bandages break. Thus it is spoken of in the scriptures regarding constant remembering as a means to liberation. This remembering again is of the same form as seeing, because it is of the same meaning as in the passage, 'When He who is far and near is seen, the bonds of the heart are broken, all doubts vanish, and all effects of work disappear' He who is near can be seen, but he who is far can only be remembered. Nevertheless the scripture says that he have to see Him who is near as well as Him who, is far, thereby indicating to us that the above kind of remembering is as good as seeing. This remembrance when exalted assumes the same form as seeing. . . . Worship is constant remembering as may be seen from the essential texts of scriptures. Knowing, which is the same as repeated worship, has been described as constant remembering. . . . Thus the memory, which has attained to the height of what is as good as direct perception, is spoken of in the Shruti as a means of liberation. 'This Atman is not to be reached through various sciences, nor by intellect, nor by much study of the Vedas. Whomsoever this Atman desires, by him is the Atman attained, unto him this Atman discovers Himself.' Here, after saying that mere hearing, thinking and meditating are not the means of attaining this Atman, it is said, 'Whom this Atman desires, by him the Atman is attained.' The extremely beloved is desired; by whomsoever this Atman is extremely beloved, he becomes the most beloved of the Atman. So that this beloved may attain the Atman, the Lord Himself helps. For it has been said by the Lord: 'Those who are constantly attached to Me and worship Me with love I give that direction to their will by which they come to Me.' Therefore it is said that, to whomsoever this remembering, which is of the same form as direct perception, is very dear, because it is dear to the Object of such memory perception, he is desired by the Supreme Atman, by him the Supreme Atman is attained. This constant remembrance is denoted by the word bhakti." So says bhagavn Rmnuja in his commentary on the Sutra Athto Brahma-jijns (Hence follows a dissertation on Brahman.).
In commenting on the Sutra of Patanjali, Ishvara pranidhndv, i.e. "Or by the worship of the Supreme Lord" Bhoja says, "Pranidhna is that sort of bhakti in which, without seeking results, such as sense-enjoyments etc., all works are dedicated to that Teacher of teachers." bhagavan Vysa also, when commenting on the same, defines Pranidhana as "the form of bhakti by which the mercy of the Supreme Lord comes to the Yogi, and blesses him by granting him his desires". According to Shndilya, " bhakti is intense love to God." The best definition is, however, that given by the king of bhaktas, Prahlda:
"That deathless love which the ignorant have for the fleeting objects of the senses as I keep meditating on Thee may not that love slip away from my heart!" Love! For whom? For the Supreme Lord Ishvara. Love for any other being, however great cannot be bhakti; for, as Ramanuja says in his Shri Bhshya, quoting an ancient chrya, i.e. a great teacher:
"From Brahm to a clump of grass, all things that live in the world are slaves of birth and death caused by Karma; therefore they cannot be helpful as objects of meditation, because they are all in ignorance and subject to change." In commenting on the word Anurakti used by Shandilya, the commentator Svapneshvara says that it means Anu, after, and Rakti, attachment; i.e. the attachment which comes after the knowledge of the nature and glory of God; else a blind attachment to any one, e.g. to wife or children, would be bhakti. We plainly see, therefore, that bhakti is a series or succession of mental efforts at religious realisation beginning with ordinary worship and ending in a supreme intensity of love for Ishvara.
next chapter: 1.02 - The Philosophy of Ishvara
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1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
This extract seems to contradict what was said above; but the contradiction is not a real one. God within and God without these are two abstract notions, which can be entertained by the understanding and expressed in words. But the facts to which these notions refer cannot be realized and experienced except in the deepest and most central part of the soul. And this is true no less of God without than of God within. But though the two abstract notions have to be realized (to use a spatial metaphor) in the same place, the intrinsic nature of the realization of God within is qualitatively different from that of the realization of God without, and each in turn is different from that of the realization of the Ground as simultaneously within and withoutas the Self of the perceiver and at the same time (in the words of the bhagavad-Gita) as That by which all this world is pervaded.
When Svetaketu was twelve years old he was sent to a teacher, with whom he studied until he was twenty-four. After learning all the Vedas, he returned home full of conceit in the belief that he was consummately well educated, and very censorious.
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The philosophy of the Upanishads reappears, developed and enriched, in the bhagavad-Gita and was finally systematized, in the ninth century of our era, by Shankara. Shankaras teaching (simultaneously theoretical and practical, as is that of all true exponents of the Perennial Philosophy) is summarized in his versified treatise, Viveka-Chudarnani (The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom). All the following passages are taken from this conveniently brief and untechnical work.
The Atman is that by which the universe is pervaded, but which nothing pervades; which causes all things to shine, but which all things cannot make to shine.
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1.025 - Sadhana - Intensifying a Lighted Flame, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The practice of yoga is nothing but a conscious participation in the universal working of nature itself and, therefore, it is the most natural thing that we can do, and the most natural thing that we can conceive. There can be nothing more natural than to participate consciously in the evolutionary work of the universe, which is the attempt of the cosmos to become Self-conscious in the Absolute. Evolution is nothing but a movement of the whole universe towards Self-awareness this is called God-realisation. Our every activity from the cup of tea that we take, to the breath that we breathe, from even the sneeze that we jet forth, to the least action that we perform, from even a single thought which occurs in the mind everything is a part of this cosmic operation which is the evolution of the universe towards Self-realisation. Therefore, the practice of yoga is the most natural thing that we can think of and the most necessary duty of a human being. Nothing can be more obligatory on our part than this duty. It is from this point of view, perhaps, that Lord Krishna proclaims, towards the end of the bhagavadgita, sarvadharmnparityajya mmeka araa vraja (B.G. XVIII.66): Renounce every other duty and come to Me for rescue which means to say, take resort in the law of the Absolute. This is the practice of yoga, and every other dharma is subsumed under it and included within it, as every drop and every river is in the ocean. In this supreme duty, every other duty is included. There is no need to think of every individual, discrete and isolated duty, because all duties are included in this one duty, which is the mother of all duties.
This peculiar feature of spiritual practice, sadhana, being so difficult to understand intellectually, cannot be regarded as merely an individual's affair. Sadhana is God's affair, ultimately. Spiritual sadhana is God's grace working. Though it appears that is individual effort, it only seems to be so, but really it is something else. Not even the greatest of philosophical thinkers, such as Shankara, could logically answer the question, "How does knowledge arise in the jiva?" How can it be said that individual effort produces knowledge of God? Knowledge of God cannot rise by individual effort, because individual effort is so puny, so inadequate to the purpose, to the task, that we cannot expect such an infinite result to follow from the finite cause. The concept of God is an inscrutable event that takes place in the human mind. Can we imagine an ass thinking about God? However much it may put forth effort and go on trying its best throughout its life, the concept of God will never arise in an ass's mind or in a buffalo's mind. How it arises is a mystery. Suddenly, it comes.
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1.028 - Bringing About Whole-Souled Dedication, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
We were discussing the relationship between abhyasa and vairagya in the system of yoga. The practice of yoga becomes effective when it is charged with the power of vairagya or the spirit of renunciation because, while practice is the endeavour to fix oneself in a particular attitude of consciousness, vairagya is a sympathetic attitude which simultaneously frees consciousness from attention to contrary objectives, or objectives which are irrelevant to the one that is taken up for the purpose of concentration and meditation. We cannot have a double attitude in yoga. That is, our attention cannot be diverted into two channels. Else, there would be split devotion, as they call it vyabhicharini bhakti not whole-souled devotion.
What is called for in this practice is wholeheartedness, and perhaps every other qualification is included in this. When we are wholehearted in anything, we shall succeed, whatever be the direction. But our difficulty seems to be that we can never be wholehearted in anything. It is merely a peculiar trait of the mind that it cannot give itself up entirely to any kind of effort, thought, feeling, or volition. There is an inherent inadequacy in the structural character of the mind, which makes it sometimes look like a double-edged sword, cutting both ways sometimes like a naughty child asking for what is impossible, and at other times trying to upset, every moment, what it is trying to achieve by its effort.
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The condition mentioned in the sutra of Patanjali is: sa tu drghakla nairantarya satkra sevita dhabhmi (I.14). A very, very affectionate attitude towards this practice is one condition. We cannot have a greater love for anything in this world than we have for this practice. In fact, this practice is like a parent to us it will take care of us, protect us and provide us with everything that we need. This practice of yoga should be continued until the point of realisation, without asking for immediate results. Karmanyevdhikraste m phaleu kadcana(B.G. II.47), says bhagavan Sri Krishna in the bhagavadgita. Our duty is to act according to the discipline prescribed, and not to expect results. The results will follow in the long run, in due course of time.
The practice should not only be continued for a protracted period, but it also should be unremitting. There should be no break in the practice this is another condition. Some people say, "For twenty-five years I have been meditating." But we have not been meditating continuously, without break, throughout all the twenty-five years. We have been missing link after link every now and then, so there has been a disconnection in the practice. It is something like having our lunch today, and missing it for two days, and then having it again on the third or fourth day, and then not having it for five or six days. Then, naturally, the intake of the diet will not have any kind of salutary effect upon the body. So the practice should be not only continuing for years and years until realisation ensues, but also it should be unremitting ceaseless. Every day it should be taken up, and at the same time each day.
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1.02 - IN THE COMPANY OF DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
was taking him. He had only been told: "If you want to see a grog-shop, then come with me. You will see a huge jar of wine there." M. related this to Sri Ramakrishna, who laughed about it. The Master said: "The bliss of worship and communion with God is the true wine, the wine of ecstatic love. The goal of human life is to love God, bhakti is the one essential thing. To know God through jnna and reasoning is extremely difficult."
Then the Master sang:
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1.02 - Prayer of Parashara to Vishnu, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
khya this incongruity does not occur; for there Pradhāna is independent, and coordinate with primary spirit. The Purāṇas give rise to the inconsistency by a lax use of both philosophical and pantheistical expressions. The most incongruous epithets in our text are however explained away in the comment. Thus nitya, 'eternal,' is said to mean 'uniform, not liable to increase or diminution:' Sadasadātmaka, 'comprehending what is and what is not,' means 'having the power of both cause and effect', as proceeding from Viṣṇu, and as giving origin to material things. Anādi, 'without beginning,' means 'without birth', not being engendered by any created thing, but proceeding immediately from the first cause. 'The mother,' or literally the womb of the world', means the passive agent in creation,' operated on or influenced by the active will of the Creator. The first part of the passage in the text is a favourite one with several of. the Purāṇas, but they modify it and apply it after their own fashion. In the Viṣṇu the original is ###, rendered as above. The Vāyu, Brahmānda, and p. 11 Kūrmma Purāṇas have 'The indiscrete cause, which is uniform, and both cause and effect, and whom those who are acquainted with first principles call Pradhāna and Prakriti-is the uncognizable Brahma, who was before all.' But the application of two synonymes of Prakriti to Brahma seems unnecessary at least. The Brahmā P. corrects the reading apparently: the first line is as before; the second is, ###. The passage is placed absolutely; 'There was an indiscrete cause eternal, and cause and effect, which was both matter and spirit (Pradhāna and Puruṣa), from which this world was made. Instead of 'such' or this,' some copies read 'from which Īśvara or god (the active deity or Brahmā) made the world.' The Hari Vaṃśa has the same reading, except in the last term, which it makes ### that is, according to the commentator, the world, which is Īśvara, was made.' The same authority explains this indiscrete cause, avyakta kārana, to denote Brahmā, the creator an identification very unusual, if not inaccurate, and possibly founded on misapprehension of what is stated by the bhaviṣya P.: 'That male or spirit which is endowed with that which is the indiscrete cause, &c. is known in the world as Brahmā: he being in the egg, &c.' The passage is precisely the same in Manu, I, 11; except that we have 'visṛṣta' instead of 'viśiṣṭha:' the latter is a questionable reading, and is probably wrong: the sense of the latter is, detached; and the whole means very consistently, 'embodied spirit detached from the indiscrete cause of the world is known as Brahmā.' The Padma P. inserts the first line, ### &c., but has 'Which creates undoubtedly Mahat and the other qualities' assigning the first epithets, therefore, as the Viṣṇu does, to Prakriti only. The Li
ga also refers the expression to Prakriti alone, but makes it a secondary cause: 'An indiscrete cause, which those acquainted with first principles call Pradhāna and Prakriti, proceeded from that Īśvara (Śiva).' This passage is one of very many instances in which expressions are common to several Purāṇas that seem to be borrowed from one another, or from some common source older than any of them, especially in this instance, as the same text occurs in Manu.
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[26]: Tanmātra, 'rudiment' or 'type,' from Tad, 'that,' for Tasmin, 'in that' gross element, and mātrā, 'subtile or rudimental form'. The rudiments are also the characteristic properties of the elements: as the Bhāgavata; 'The rudiment of it (ether) is also its quality, sound; as a common designation may denote both a person who sees an object, and the object which is to be seen: that is, according to the commentator, suppose a person behind a wall called aloud, "An elephant! an elephant!" the term would equally indicate that an elephant was visible, and that somebody saw it. bhag. II. 5.
[27]: The properties here alluded to are not those of goodness &c., but other properties assigned to perceptible objects by the Sā
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[28]: The Bhāgavata, which gives a similar statement of the origin of the elements, senses, and divinities, specifies the last to be Diś (space), air, the sun, Pracetas, the Aswins, fire, Indra, Upendra, Mitra, and Ka or Prajāpati, presiding over the senses, according to the comment, or severally over the ear, skin, eye, tongue, nose, speech, hands, feet, and excretory and generative organs. bhag. II. 5. 31.
[29]: Avyaktānugraheṇa. The expression is something equivocal, as Avyakta may here apply either to the First Cause or to matter. In either case the notion is the same, and the aggregation of the elements is the effect of the presidence of spirit, without any active interference of the indiscrete principle. The Avyakta is passive in the evolution and combination of Mahat and the rest. Pradhāna is, no doubt, intended, but its identification with the Supreme is also implied. The term Anugraha may also refer to a classification of the order of creation, which will be again adverted to.
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1.02 - Self-Consecration, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
12:In the ordinary paths of Yoga the method used for dealing with these conflicting materials is direct and simple. One or another of the principal psychological forces in us is selected as our single means for attaining to the Divine; the rest is quieted into inertia or left to starve in its smallness. The bhakta, seizing on the emotional forces of the being, the intense activities of the heart, abides concentrated in the love of God, gathered up as into a single one-pointed tongue of fire; he is indifferent to the activities of thought, throws behind him the importunities of the reason, cares nothing for the mind's thirst for knowledge. All the knowledge he needs is his faith and the inspirations that well up from a heart in communion with the Divine. He has no use for any will to works that is not turned to the direct worship of the Beloved or the service of the temple. The man of Knowledge, self-confined by a deliberate choice to the force and activities of discriminative thought, finds release in the mind's inward-drawn endeavour. He concentrates on the idea of the self, succeeds by a subtle inner discernment in distinguishing its silent presence amid the veiling activities of Nature, and through the perceptive idea arrives at the concrete spiritual experience. He is indifferent to the play of the emotions, deaf to the hunger-call of passion, closed to the activities of Life, -- the more blessed he, the sooner they fall away from him and leave him free, still and mute, the eternal non-doer. The body is his stumbling-block, the vital functions are his enemies; if their demands can be reduced to a minimum, that is his great good fortune. The endless difficulties that arise from the environing world are dismissed by erecting firmly against them a defence of outer physical and inner spiritual solitude; safe behind a wall of inner silence, he remains impassive and untouched by the world and by others. To be alone with oneself or alone with the Divine, to walk apart with God and his devotees, to entrench oneself in the single self-ward endeavour of the mind or Godward passion of the heart is the trend of these Yogas. The problem is solved by the excision of all but the one central difficulty which pursues the only chosen motive-force; into the midst of the dividing calls of our nature the principle of an exclusive concentration comes sovereignly to our rescue.
13:But for the Sadhaka of the integral Yoga this inner or this outer solitude can only be incidents or periods in his spiritual progress. Accepting life, he has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world's burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature of a battle than others'; but this is not only an individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable country. He has not only to conquer in himself the forces of egoistic falsehood and disorder, but to conquer them as representatives of the same adverse and inexhaustible forces in the world. Their representative character gives them a much more obstinate capacity of resistance, an almost endless right to recurrence. Often he finds that even after he has won persistently his own personal battle, he has still to win it over and over again in a seemingly interminable war, because his inner existence has already been so much enlarged that not only it contains his own being with its well-defined needs and experiences, but is in solidarity with the being of others, because in himself he contains the universe.
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1.02 - Skillful Means, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
At that time the bhagavat arose tranquilly with insight out of samdhi and addressed riputra: Profound and immeasurable is the wisdom of the buddhas. The gate to their wisdom is hard to enter and difficult to understand.
None of the rvakas and pratyekabuddhas may be capable of understanding it. Why is this? The buddhas have closely attended innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of other buddhas. They have exhaustively carried out practices with courage and persistence under uncountable numbers of buddhas, their names becoming universally renowned. They have perfected this profound and unprecedented Dharma, and their intention in adapting their explanations to what is appropriate is difficult to understand.
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Thereupon the bhagavat spoke these verses to explain this meaning again:
The Heroes of the World are inconceivable,
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The Dharma of the bhagavat
Has been in existence for a long time.
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At that time it occurred to the great assembly of twelve hundred rvakas, arhats free from corruption, beginning with jtakauinya, and the other monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen who had set out to become rvakas and pratyekabuddhas: Why has the bhagavat just now so earnestly praised skillful means? For what reason has he declared that the Dharma that the buddhas have attained is very profound and difficult to understand? Why has he said that their intention in adapting their teaching to what is appropriate is so difficult to comprehend that all the rvakas and pratyekabuddhas are not able to understand it?
As long as the Buddha taught the meaning of the single liberation we thought we had attained that Dharma and achieved nirvana. But now we do not understand what he means.
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the unique skillful means of the buddhas and the profound and subtle Dharma that is difficult to understand? Never before have I heard such a thing from the Buddha. Now bhagavat, I entreat you to explain this because the fourfold assemblies are confused. O bhagavat! Why have you so earnestly praised the Dharma that is profound, subtle, and difficult to understand?
Thereupon riputra, wanting to further explain what he meant, spoke these verses:
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Then riputra again addressed the Buddha: O bhagavat! Please explain it! I entreat you to explain it, because in this assembly there are innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of incalculable sentient beings, sharp in faculties and possessed of wisdom, who have previously encountered the buddhas. When they hear the teaching of the Buddha they will trust, believe, and accept it.
Thereupon riputra spoke in verse to explain this again:
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At that time the bhagavat again spoke in verse:
Enough, enough! Speak no more!
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And again riputra addressed the Buddha, saying: O bhagavat! Please explain it! Please explain it! In this assembly there are people like me and others, numbering into the hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of beings, who have been led and inspired by the buddhas in their former existences. Such people will certainly trust, believe, and accept it. And they will benet, prot, and receive solace from it for a very long time.
Thereupon riputra spoke these verses to elaborate on what he meant:
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Then the bhagavat spoke to riputra, saying: You have now persistently asked me three times. How could I possibly not explain it to you?
Therefore listen carefully and pay close attention! I will now illuminate and explain it.
When he said this, ve thousand monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen in the assembly immediately got up from their seats, bowed to the Buddha, and left. What was the reason for this? Because the roots of error among this group had been deeply planted and they were arrogant, thinking they had attained what they had not attained and had realized what they had not realized. Because of such defects they did not stay. And the bhagavat remained silent and did not stop them.
Then the Buddha addressed riputra: My assembly here is free of useless twigs and leaves; only the pure essence remains.
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Then riputra replied: Indeed, O bhagavat, I greatly desire to hear it.
Then the Buddha addressed riputra: Only very rarely do the Buddha
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Because the Buddha bhagavats appear in this world for one great purpose alone. O riputra! Now I will explain why I said that the Buddha bhagavats appear in this world for only one great purpose.
The Buddha bhagavat appear in this world to cause sentient beings to aspire toward purity and the wisdom and insight of the buddhas. They appear in this world to manifest the wisdom and insight of the buddhas to sentient beings. They appear in this world to cause sentient beings to attain the wisdom and insight of a buddhas enlightenment. They appear in this world in order to cause sentient beings to enter the path of the wisdom and insight of a buddha.
O riputra! For this one great reason alone the buddhas have appeared in this world.
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O riputra! All the Buddha bhagavats of the present, in immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of kois of buddha worlds of the ten directions, teach the Dharma to sentient beings using incalculable and innumerable skillful means with various explanations and illustrations to benet many of them and cause them to feel at peace. These Dharmas are all of the single buddha vehicle. All the sentient beings who hear the Dharma from these buddhas will ultimately attain omniscience.
O riputra! These buddhas lead and inspire only bodhisattvas, because they want to teach sentient beings with the wisdom and insight of the Buddha, to enlighten sentient beings with the wisdom and insight of the Buddha, and to cause sentient beings to enter the path of the wisdom and insight of the
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Thereupon the bhagavat, wanting to elaborate the meaning of this further, uttered these verses:
In the fourfold assembly there were ve thousand
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Yet all of the bhagavats
Teach the path of the single vehicle.
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All the bhagavats
Taught the characteristics of all dharmas
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All these bhagavats
Taught the Dharma of the single vehicle,
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The future bhagavats, Tathgatas,
Immeasurable in number,
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1.02 - The Development of Sri Aurobindos Thought, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
year he met the yogi Vishnu bhaskar Lele and had with
him his first great spiritual experience, the realization of
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cal work for bharat Mata had turned into a spiritual Work
for humanity. As he said in his Uttarpara speech soon after
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1.02 - The Divine Teacher, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
para bhava.
deh.
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Kurukshetra may be something more than a dramatic fiction. In the Maha bharata Krishna is represented both as the historical character and the Avatar; his worship and Avatarhood must therefore have been well established by the time - apparently from the fifth to the first centuries B.C. - when the old story and poem or epic tradition of the bharatas took its present form. There is a hint also in the poem of the story or legend of the Avatar's early life in Vrindavan which, as developed by the Puranas into an intense and powerful spiritual symbol, has exercised so profound an influence on the religious mind of
India. We have also in the Harivansha an account of the life of
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1.02 - The Doctrine of the Mystics, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Each of these primary deities has others associated with him who fulfil functions that arise from his own. For if the truth of Surya is to be established firmly in our mortal nature, there are previous conditions that are indispensable; a vast purity and clear wideness destructive of all sin and crooked falsehood, - and this is Varuna; a luminous power of love and comprehension leading and forming into harmony all our thoughts, acts and impulses, - this is Mitra; an immortal puissance of clear-discerning aspiration and endeavour, - this is Aryaman; a happy spontaneity of the right enjoyment of all things dispelling the evil dream of sin and error and suffering, - this is bhaga. These four are powers of the Truth of Surya.
For the whole bliss of Soma to be established perfectly in our nature a happy and enlightened and unmaimed condition of mind, vitality and body are necessary. This condition is given to us by the twin Ashwins; wedded to the daughter of Light, drinkers of honey, bringers of perfect satisfactions, healers of maim and malady they occupy our parts of knowledge and parts of action and prepare our mental, vital and physical being for an easy and victorious ascension.
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There are also female energies; for the Deva is both Male and Female and the gods also are either activising souls or passively executive and methodising energies. Aditi, infinite Mother of the Gods, comes first; and there are besides five powers of the Truthconsciousness, - Mahi or bharati, the vast Word that brings us all things out of the divine source; Ila, the strong primal word of the Truth who gives us its active vision; Saraswati, its streaming current and the word of its inspiration; Sarama, the Intuition, hound of heaven who descends into the cavern of the subconscient and finds there the concealed illuminations; Dakshina, whose function is to discern rightly, dispose the action and the offering and distribute in the sacrifice to each godhead its portion. Each god, too, has his female energy.
All this action and struggle and ascension is supported by Heaven our Father and Earth our Mother Parents of the Gods, who sustain respectively the purely mental and psychic and the physical consciousness. Their large and free scope is the condition of our achievement. Vayu, master of life, links them together by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are other deities, - Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic Dragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third plane of existence consummates our triple being; and more besides.
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1.02 - The Eternal Law, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
and one who is ready to understand a little Lalita's childlike face and to bring her his incense and flowers may not be able to address the Eternal Mother in the silence of his heart; still another may prefer to deny all forms and plunge into the contemplation of That which is formless. "Even as men come to Me, so I accept them. It is my path that men follow from all sides," says the bhagavad Gita (IV,11). 14 As we see, there are so many ways of conceiving of God, in three or three million persons, that we should not dogmatize, lest we eliminate everything, finally leaving nothing but a Cartesian God, one and universal by virtue only of his narrowness. Perhaps we still confuse unity with uniformity. It was in the spirit of that tradition that Sri Aurobindo was soon to write: The perfection of the integral Yoga will come when each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga, pursuing the development of his own nature in its upsurging towards that which transcends the nature. For freedom is the final law and the last consummation.15
Nor does an Indian ever ask: "Do you believe in God?" The question would seem to him as childish as: "Do you believe in CO2?"
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All quotations from the Upanishads, the Veda, and the bhagavad Gita in this book are taken from Sri Aurobindo's translations.
The Synthesis of Yoga, 20:51
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1.02 - The Philosophy of Ishvara, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
Who is Ishvara? Janmdyasya yatah "From whom is the birth, continuation, and dissolution of the universe," He is Ishvara "the Eternal, the Pure, the Ever-Free, the Almighty, the AllKnowing, the All-Merciful, the Teacher of all teachers"; and above all, Sa Ishvarah anirvachaniyapremasvarupah "He the Lord is, of His own nature, inexpressible Love." These certainly are the definitions of a Personal God. Are there then two Gods the "Not this, not this," the Sat-chit-nanda, the Existence-Knowledge-Bliss of the philosopher, and this God of Love of the bhakta? No, it is the same Sat-chit-ananda who is also the God of Love, the impersonal and personal in one. It has always to be understood that the Personal God worshipped by the bhakta is not separate or different from the Brahman. All is Brahman, the One without a second; only the Brahman, as unity or absolute, is too much of an abstraction to be loved and worshipped; so the bhakta chooses the relative aspect of Brahman, that is, Ishvara, the Supreme Ruler. To use a simile: Brahman is as the clay or substance out of which an infinite variety of articles are fashioned. As clay, they are all one; but form or manifestation differentiates them. Before every one of them was made, they all existed potentially in the clay, and, of course, they are identical substantially; but when formed, and so long as the form remains, they are separate and different; the clay-mouse can never become a clay-elephant, because, as manifestations, form alone makes them what they are, though as unformed clay they are all one.
Ishvara is the highest manifestation of the Absolute Reality, or in other words, the highest possible reading of the Absolute by the human mind. Creation is eternal, and so also is Ishvara.
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We shall now try to understand what the great representative of the Advaita School has to say on the point. We shall see how the Advaita system maintains all the hopes and aspirations of the dualist intact, and at the same time propounds its own solution of the problem in consonance with the high destiny of divine humanity. Those who aspire to retain their individual mind even after liberation and to remain distinct will have ample opportunity of realising their aspirations and enjoying the blessing of the qualified Brahman. These are they who have been spoken of in the Bhgavata Purna thus: "O king, such are the, glorious qualities of the Lord that the sages whose only pleasure is in the Self, and from whom all fetters have fallen off, even they love the Omnipresent with the love that is for love's sake." These are they who are spoken of by the Snkhyas as getting merged in nature in this cycle, so that, after attaining perfection, they may come out in the next as lords of world-systems. But none of these ever becomes equal to God (Ishvara). Those who attain to that state where there is neither creation, nor created, nor creator, where there is neither knower, nor knowable, nor knowledge, where there is neither I, nor thou, nor he, where there is neither subject, nor object, nor relation, "there, who is seen by whom?" such persons have gone beyond everything to "where words cannot go nor mind", gone to that which the Shrutis declare as "Not this, not this"; but for those who cannot, or will not reach this state, there will inevitably remain the triune vision of the one undifferentiated Brahman as nature, soul, and the interpenetrating sustainer of both Ishvara. So, when Prahlda forgot himself, he found neither the universe nor its cause; all was to him one Infinite, undifferentiated by name and form; but as soon as he remembered that he was Prahlada, there was the universe before him and with it the Lord of the universe "the Repository of an infinite number of blessed qualities". So it was with the blessed Gopis. So long as they had lost sense of their own personal identity and individuality, they were all Krishnas, and when they began again to think of Him as the One to be worshipped, then they were Gopis again, and immediately bhakti, then, can be directed towards Brahman, only in His personal aspect.
"The way is more difficult for those whose mind is attached to the Absolute!" bhakti has to float on smoothly with the current of our nature. True it is that we cannot have; any idea of the Brahman which is not anthropomorphic, but is it not equally true of everything we know? The greatest psychologist the world has ever known, bhagavan Kapila, demonstrated ages ago that human consciousness is one of the elements in the make-up of all the objects of our perception and conception, internal as well as external. Beginning with our bodies and going up to Ishvara, we may see that every object of our perception is this consciousness plus something else, whatever that may be; and this unavoidable mixture is what we ordinarily think of as reality. Indeed it is, and ever will be, all of the reality that is possible for the human mind to know. Therefore to say that Ishvara is unreal, because He is anthropomorphic, is sheer nonsense. It sounds very much like the occidentals squabble on idealism and realism, which fearful-looking quarrel has for its foundation a mere play on the word "real". The idea of Ishvara covers all the ground ever denoted and connoted by the word real, and Ishvara is as real as anything else in the universe; and after all, the word real means nothing more than what has now been pointed out. Such is our philosophical conception of Ishvara.
( bhagavata) "Unto them appeared Krishna with a smile on His lotus face, clad in yellow robes and having garlands on, the embodied conqueror (in beauty) of the god of love."
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next chapter: 1.03 - Spiritual Realisation, The aim of bhakti-Yoga
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1.02 - The Recovery, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
We reached the month of April. Sri Aurobindo's rapid progress became widely known and people began to clamour for a Darshan; they had already missed two of them, and for the next one in August it would be too painfully long to wait. The Mother also began to plead on behalf of the bhaktas, though not much pleading was needed. For we know that when the Mother's heart had melted, the Father's would not take long to do so. Besides, the Mother probably wanted Sri Aurobindo to take up his regular activities as soon as possible. Even for him she would not make any exception. Her dynamic nature cannot brook too long an ease. April 24th was then fixed for the Darshan, as it was the day of the Mother's final arrival in Pondicherry. Thenceforth the April Darshan became a permanent feature. The date well suited the professors and students, since it fell within the span of the summer holidays. But the darshan time had to be changed from the morning to the afternoon and it would be a darshan in the true sense of the word. For the devotees would simply come and stand for a brief while before the Mother and the Master, have their darshan and quietly leave. Sri Aurobindo tersely remarked, "No more of that long seven-hour darshan!" Formerly the Darshan was observed with a great ceremonial pomp. Starting at about 7.30 a.m., it ran with one breathing interval, up to 3 p.m. The devotees offered their garlands and flowers, did two, even three or four pranams to the Mother and the Master who remained glued to one place throughout the ordeal, and endured another martyrdom under this excessive display of bhakti even as Raman Maharshi suffered from the "plague of prasads". Now, all that was cut down at one stroke by the force of external circumstances, and all expression transformed into a quiet inner adoration which is a characteristic of this Yoga. Sri Aurobindo's accident made the ceremonial Darshan a thing of past history.
On the eve of the Darshan, the Mother washed Sri Aurobindo's hair with our help. It was such an elaborate and complicated affair that had it been left in our hands, it would have ended in confusion, particularly because it had to be done in the bedroom. Hot and cold water, basins, soap, powder, etc., etc., had to be kept ready. What a ceremony really, this washing was! No wonder ladies go in for bob or shingle. Formerly, Sri Aurobindo, it seems, used to wash his long hair every night, but I am sure he did without all this paraphernalia. His secluded life had, of course, simplified the whole complex process. Later on when a bathroom adjoining his living room was built, washing lost its formidable character. Sri Aurobindo bore all this torture as a part of the game, I suppose.
The Darshan day at last! In the morning, the Mother arrived in his room with a flower, probably a red lotus, knelt before the Lord, placed the lotus on his bed and bowed down to receive his blessings and his sweet smile. This was the second time I saw her doing pranam to him. The first time was on her birthday, February 21. It was a revelation to me, for I did not expect her to bow down in the Indian way. On every Darshan day since then I enjoyed the sight. On other days she used to take his hand and lightly kiss it. With her customary drive, she chalked out the Darshan programme, the time for Sri Aurobindo's lunch and of her coming for the Darshan. We had to be ready and keep the Master ready too. From the early morning time began to move fast, the Mother was seen rushing about, she had so many things to attend to! Everything finished, clad in a lovely sari, a crown adorning her shapely head, looking like a veritable Goddess, she entered Sri Aurobindo's room with brisk steps, earlier than the appointed time, as was her wont. She gave a quick glance at us. We were all attention. The entire group was present, it being the first Darshan after the accident. She was pleased to find us ready. Sri Aurobindo was dressed in an immaculate white dhoti, its border daintily creased, as is the custom in Bengal; a silk chaddar across his chest and his long shining hair flowing down a picture that reminded us of Shiva and Shakti going out to give darshan to their bhaktas; Sri Aurobindo was in front and the Mother behind. They sat together as on other Darshan days, she on his right, a glorious view, and the ceremony began.
It was, however, a simple Darshan. One by one the sadhaks stood for a brief moment before the One-in-Two, and passed on quietly thrilled and exalted by their silent look and gracious smile. The feelings of the sadhaks can be imagined when they saw their beloved Master restored to his normal health! The Darshan was over within an hour, and when Sri Aurobindo was back in his room Dr. Rao remarked in his childlike manner, "Sir, you looked grand at the Darshan!" Sri Aurobindo smiled and we retorted, just to tease him, "At other times he doesn't?" Rao, nonplussed, replied, "No, no, I did not mean that." Truly, Rao had expressed the sentiments of hundreds of devotees who had a glimpse of him during the Darshan. What a grandeur and majesty in his simple silent pose! What a power, as if he held the whole world in the palm of his hand! If ever a human being could attain the stature of a god, he was there for all to see and be blessed by. Many have had a deep change after just one touch of his God-like magnificence. "A touch can alter the fixed front of Fate." Many had visions and boons they had long been seeking for, and for the sadhaks each Darshan was a step to a further milestone towards the Eternal. Sri Aurobindo had said: "Darshans are periods of great descents!" It was not for nothing that Hitler chose the 15th of August for his royal ascension in Buckingham Palace and got the first heavy blow. Nor was it for nothing that India gained her independence on that immortal day.
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There was a rush to buy the book and get Sri Aurobindo's autograph in the bargain! For a divine policy was announced whose brain-wave it was, I do not know that all buyers would be favoured with the autograph of the Master. Volume after volume began to pour in with the names of the buyers appended to them. The names were sometimes quite long, such as Purushottamdas Thakurdas Chintamani Patil, and he would ask, "Am I to write all that?" And there were fanciful spellings to boot! Dates as well! At times the names of the husband and his wife together! If sometimes a name struck his fancy he would ask, "Who the devil is he?" or "Who is this Lord Shiva?" or we, would ourselves say that he was so and so. Many were the bhaktas who could not understand a word of the book but bought it for the sake of his blessings. For us sadhaks who could not afford to buy it, the book was given free on our birthday, with the autograph added to it. Later all the books of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo when published, were given to us according to our needs, on our birthdays. The Mother would ask, "Do you want any book? Have you got this book?" One wonders how much money was spent on this; and the custom continues even now, though in a modified form.
When Vol. III came out, it being the bulkiest, Sri Aurobindo remarked, "What a fat elephant!" And when they entered the room in packs and were heaped on the side-couch waiting for the autograph, they made an impressive herd and thrilled us with joy that The Life Divine had at last been delivered on this woe-begone planet of ours! But with the encroaching dimness of his eye-sight, the Mother stopped the practice of giving autographs altogether.
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1.031 - Intense Aspiration, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
What we should do is, together with our effort at change of physical atmosphere, also try to bring about a gradual change in our internal atmosphere by resorting to certain spiritual disciplines, such as the utilisation of the time on hand for certain definite chosen purposes. When we live in a particular place we have left our homes and have come to Uttarkashi, for instance how do we use our time? Do we go about from place to place, chatting? Then we should go back to our home and stay there. Why do we come to Uttarkashi? We have to utilise the time for a purpose which is more intimate to the object on hand than the way in which we lived earlier. Generally, people take to mantra purascharana a disciplined type of chanting of the mantra that has been given to them by their Guru and sacred study of scriptures, such as the Srimad bhagavata or the Ramayana, or any other holy text which is conducive to pinpointing the mind on the liberation of the soul, which is the ultimate objective.
Another great helpful factor is observing mouna or not talking, or at least talking only when it is necessary. Talking only when it is necessary means we will talk only when it is absolutely impossible to avoid talking; otherwise, we will not talk. Why do we go on talking with everyone? There is no necessity. We should regard ourselves as real seekers and not merely as jokers with truth, and try to open our mouths only when it is necessary, and otherwise not open our mouths. It is necessary to open the mouth only when it has some connection with the purpose for which we have come here. When it has no connection, why do we talk? We should keep our mouths closed. This is not only a spiritual discipline but also a very helpful method of conserving energy, because much of the energy is lost in talking. If we do not speak for three days continuously, we will see what difference it makes. We will feel that there is so much of strength in us that we can walk even long distances without any feeling of fatigue. All our energy goes in speaking unnecessarily to anyone and anything that is in front of us, on any subject whatsoever.
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1.032 - Our Concept of God, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
But wholly dedicating ourself for the sake of God these feelings for God, in a whole-souled fashion, though in a rarefied form of the ordinary loves in the world, are called the bhavas in bhakti yoga. A bhava is a feeling. Our feeling for God is called a bhava. Here, the basic difference that seems to be there between man and God is taken for granted, and it is not solved, because it cannot be solved so easily. If we go on trying to solve this question, our whole life will be spent in only answering this question. Therefore, the teachers of the path of devotion emphasised the necessity to love God, somehow or other, even if it be a magnified form of human love; and the answer to the difficulty as to whether human love is really divine love was that when human love gets magnified into infinity, it becomes divine love. There is a great point in this answer, because when the finite is lifted up into an unconditioned expanse to the extent possible for the mind, it loses the sting of finitude. The doctrine here is that when this human affection is expanded into the vastness of creation, though it may be true that in quality it has not changed, because of the fact that it has transformed itself into an utterly inconceivable magnitude of quantity, it will be free from the stigma of finitude of affection, and will be able to achieve certain miraculous results which finite love cannot.
These bhavas or feelings of love for God are, therefore, human affections diverted to God in an all-absorbing manner, so that the conditioning factors of human affection are removed as far as possible, and God is taken for granted as a permanent Being - not like an ordinary object in the world which can die one day or the other, but as a perpetually existent Being and the necessity for loving that permanent Being is emphasised. Here, the feeling for God is similar to the feeling we have towards human relationships. These bhavas of bhakti are the central features of one path of yoga, called bhakti yoga, where God can be loved as a father, for instance. This is called shanta bhava, where emotions are least present.
We do not have a lot of emotion in respect of our father. We have a reverence for our father, a respect and a feeling of awe, coupled with a sustained emotion of love not in the form of an ebullition of emotion, but as a controlled form of feeling which is designated as the peaceful attitude, or the shanta bhava. Most religions regard God as a father, and very few religions have any other attitude. He is the Supreme Father, and our relation to God is the relation that we have to a father, and we feel for God in the same way as we feel for our father. What is our feeling for our father? Fear is also a part of this love when God is regarded as a parent, because we fear our father not because we dislike him, but because he has certain regulating principles which may not always be commensurate with our whims and fancies of personality.
The juristic concept of God as a lawgiver, a lawmaker and a dispenser of justice is a pre-eminent feature in the concept of God in most religions. This feeling can be regarded as one of the channelising factors which can draw all the forces of the mind towards God. The teachers of bhakti tell us that if God is regarded as All-in-all, as the Supreme Maker and the All-powerful Being, even if He be the Creator in the sense of an ordinary maker of things, a day will come when this quantitative expanse of devotion will automatically bring about, in a subtle manner, a qualitative transformation also, so that human love can become divine love.
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1.036 - The Rise of Obstacles in Yoga Practice, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The world appears to be opposed to what we are doing and intending on account of the peculiar, disharmonious elements present in us, into which we cannot have proper insight at present, and when these elements in us get transformed into a state of harmony with the forces of the world outside, then the truth will reveal itself that the enemy is our friend. tmaiva hy tmano bandhur tmaiva ripur tmana (B.G. VI.5). The bhagavadgita tells us that our higher being may appear as our own enemy. God Himself may look like an enemy one day, because our intentions, based as they are on our psychophysical individuality, may not concur with the will of the Supreme, and then it is likely we will feel the will of the Universe, the will of God, and the intentions of nature are contrary to what we are intending to do.
But when these impending impediments get reversed in their order of action and procedure, we face the world directly and do not turn our backs to it. Now we are turning our backs to nature. It is moving in one direction, and we are moving in the opposite direction, and therefore there is a repulsion of two forces and an apparent feeling of irreconcilability between our intentions and the intentions of the world or of nature. The reason is that we have turned our backs to nature. While the order of nature requires cognition of things from the point of view of their own subjecthood or selfhood, we turn our backs to this truth and regard everything as an object. This is the reason why there is conflict between us and nature.
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1.03 - A Parable, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
Thereupon riputra stood up ecstatic and joyful, pressed his palms together and, gazing at the Buddha, the bhagavat, said: Now, hearing the words of this Dharma from the bhagavat, my heart is full of joy for I have experienced something unprecedented. What is the reason for this? In the past when
I heard this Dharma from the Buddha and saw the bodhisattvas receive their predictions, I was not included. I grieved because I thought I had been deprived of the immeasurable wisdom and insight of the Tathgata.
O bhagavat! While I was dwelling alone under forest trees, whether sitting or walking, I was constantly thinking this: Since we have also realized the true nature of the Dharma, why has the Tathgata tried to save us with the teachings of the inferior vehicle?
The fault is ours, not the bhagavats. Why is this? If we had waited for your explanation about the way to achieve highest, complete enlightenment, we certainly would have been able to save ourselves by means of the
Mahayana. However, we did not understand that you were teaching with skillful means, according to what is appropriate to us. When we rst heard the Buddhas teaching, we immediately accepted, contemplated, and understood it.
O bhagavat! Since long ago I have reproached myself incessantly day and night. But now from the Buddha we have heard the unprecedented Dharma that we have never heard before, and it has removed all our doubts.
I have obtained peace and tranquility in body and mind. Today I have
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And wanted to ask the bhagavat:
Have I or have I not lost these?
I always saw the bhagavat
Praising the bodhisattvas.
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The bhagavat, knowing my mind,
Removed the false views and taught nirvana.
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The present bhagavat,
From the time he was born
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The bhagavat teaches the real path,
But the Wicked One does not.
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Teacher of Devas and Humans, Buddha, bhagavat.
Your land will be called Viraja. Its earth will be level and pure, ornamented, peaceful, and rich. The devas and humans will prosper. The earth will be made of lapis lazuli with a well-planned network of roads like a chessboard bordered with golden cords. Rows of seven-jeweled trees, which are always full of owers and fruits, will line the borders of these roads. The
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Then the bhagavat, wanting to elaborate on the meaning of this again, spoke these verses:
O riputra! In the future
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The teaching of the bhagavat,
Yet we have never before heard
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When the bhagavat taught this Dharma
We were all delighted.
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Has received his prediction from the bhagavat.
In the same way, we too,
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At that time riputra said this to the Buddha: O bhagavat! I now have no further doubts. I have received the prediction of the highest supreme enlightenment in the presence of the Buddha.
When all those twelve hundred who have attained complete mental discipline were still under training in the past, the Buddha constantly led and inspired them, saying: My teaching overcomes birth, old age, illness, and death and it leads to nirvana. Both those who were still in training and those who were not thought that they were free from false views about the self, existence and nonexistence, and declared that they had attained nirvana.
Yet now, in the presence of the bhagavat, they have heard what they have never heard before and have fallen into doubt.
Splendid, O bhagavat! I entreat you to explain to the fourfold assembly the reason why, and free them from their doubts!
Then the Buddha said to riputra: Did I not previously tell you that all the Buddha bhagavats explain the Dharma with various explanations and illustrations using skillful means, all for the sake of highest, complete enlightenment!? All of these teachings are for leading and inspiring the bodhisattvas.
Moreover, riputra, I will now clarify what I mean with illustrations.
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riputra replied: No bhagavat! The afuent man only tried to help his children escape from the disastrous re. He saved their lives and did not deceive them. This is by no means a deception. Why? Because by saving their lives they obtained marvelous toys. Moreover, they were saved from the burning house by skillful means.
O bhagavat! If this afuent man had not given them even the smallest cart, it still would not have been a deception. Why is this? Because this afuent man thought before:
I will help my children escape with skillful means.
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O riputra! Those beings, wise by nature, who accept the Dharma from the Buddha bhagavat, who are diligent, persistent, and wish to escape from the triple world quickly, and who are seeking nirvana, are all practicing the rvaka vehicle. They are like those children who left the burning house seeking the cart yoked to a sheep.
Those beings who accept the Dharma of the Buddha bhagavat, who are diligent and persevere in seeking the wisdom of the Self-generated One and enjoy tranquility for themselves, who profoundly know the causes of and reasons for existence, are all practicing the pratyekabuddha vehicle.
They are just like those children who left the burning house seeking the cart yoked to a deer.
Those beings who accept the Dharma of the Buddha bhagavat, who are diligent and persevere in seeking the wisdom of the Omniscient One, the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Self-generated One, the wisdom acquired without a teacher, the wisdom and insight, powers, and fearlessness of the Tathgata; who are compassionate, put immeasurable sentient beings at ease, benet devas and humans, and save all beings, are all practicing the Mahayana. Bodhisattvas are called mahsattvas (great beings) because they seek this vehicle. They are just like those children who left the burning house seeking the cart yoked to an ox.
O riputra! That afuent man saw his children leave the burning house safely and arrive at a safe place. Knowing that he had immeasurable wealth, he gave a large cart equally to each child. The Tathgata is exactly like this.
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Whom the Buddha bhagavats
Lead and inspire with skillful means
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1.03 - Hymns of Gritsamada, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
7. O Fire, to one who makes ready and sufficient his works thou art the giver of the treasure; thou art divine Savitri and a founder of the ecstasy. O Master of man, thou art bhaga and hast power for the riches; thou art the guardian in the house for one who worships thee with his works.
3 Or, the Goddess tenant of the city.
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11. O Divine Fire, thou art Aditi, the indivisible Mother to the giver of the sacrifice; thou art bharati, voice of the offering, and thou growest by the word. Thou art Ila of the hundred winters wise to discern; O Master of the Treasure, thou art Saraswati who slays the python adversary.
12. O Fire, when thou art well borne by us thou becomest the supreme growth and expansion of our being, all glory and beauty are in thy desirable hue and thy perfect vision. O Vastness, thou art the plenitude that carries us to the end of our way; thou art a multitude of riches spread out on every side.
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8. May Saraswati effecting our thought and goddess Ila and bharati who carries all to their goal, the three goddesses, sit on our altar-seat and guard by the self-law of things our gapless house of refuge.
9. Soon there is born a Hero of golden-red form, an aspirant to the Godheads, a mighty bringer of riches and founder of our growth to wideness. Let the Maker of forms loosen the knot of the navel in us, let him set free the issue of our works; then let him walk on the way of the Gods.9
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1.03 - Japa Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
2. Japa is the repetition of any Mantra or Name of the Lord with bhava and feeling.
3. Japa removes the impurities of the mind, destroys sins and brings the devotee face to face with the Lord.
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20. Do not do the Japa in a hurried manner, just as a contractor tries to finish his work in a hurried way. Do it slowly with bhava, one-pointedness of mind and single-minded devotion.
21. Pronounce the Mantra distinctly and without mistakes. Do not repeat it too fast or too slow.
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29. A devotee of Lord Vishnu should repeat Om Namo Narayanaya; a devotee of Lord Siva, Om Namah Sivaya; a devotee of Lord Krishna, Om Namo bhagavate Vasudevaya; a devotee of Lord Rama, Om Sri Ramaya Namah or Om Sri Ram Jaya Ram Jaya Jaya Ram; a devotee of Devi, Gayatri Mantra or Durga Mantra.
30. It is better to stick to one Mantra alone. See Lord Krishna in Rama, Siva, Durga, Gayatri.
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1.03 - Measure of time, Moments of Kashthas, etc., #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
ga Purāṇas exactly agree with our authority. In Manu, I. 64, we have the same computation, with a difference in the first article, eighteen Nimeṣas being one Kaṣṭhā. The bhaviṣya P. follows Manu in that respect, and agrees in the rest with the Padma, which has,
[4]: These calculations of time are found in most of the Purāṇas, with some additions occasionally, of no importance, as that of the year of the seven Ṛṣis, 3030 mortal years, and the year of Dhruva, 9090 such years, in the Li
--
[6]: 'One and seventy enumerations of the four ages, with a surplus.' A similar reading occurs in several other Purāṇas, but none of them state of what the surplus or addition consists; but it is, in fact, the number of years required to reconcile two computations of the Kalpa. The most simple, and probably the original calculation of a Kalpa, is its being 1000 great ages, or ages of the gods: ### bhaviṣya P. Then 4.320.000 years, or a divine age, x 1000 = 4320.000.000 years, or a day or night of Brahmā,. But a day of Brahmā is also seventy-one times a great age multiplied by fourteen: 4.320.000 x 71 x 14= 4.294.080.000, or less than the preceding by 25.920.000; and it is to make up for this deficiency that a certain number of years must be added to the computation by Manvantaras. According to the Sūrya Siddhānta, as cited by Mr. Davis (A. R. 2. 231), this addition consists of a Sandhi to each Manvantara, equal to the Satya age, or 5.728.000 years; and one similar Sandhi at the commencement of the Kalpa: thus p. 25 4.320.000 x 71 = 306.720.000 + 1.728.000 = 308.448.000 x 14 = 4318.272.000 + 1.728.000 = 4320.000.000. The Pauranics, however, omit the Sandhi of the Kalpa, and add the whole compensation to the Manvantaras. The amount of this in whole numbers is 1.851.428 in each Manvantara, or 4.320.000 x 71= 306.720.000 + 1.851.428 = 308.571.428 x 14 = 4319.999.992; leaving a very small inferiority to the result of the calculation of a Kalpa by a thousand great ages. To provide for this deficiency, indeed, very minute subdivisions are admitted into the calculation; and the commentator on our text says, that the additional years, if of gods, are 5142 years, 10 months, 8 days, 4 watches, 2 Muhūrttas, 8 Kalās, 17 Kāṣṭhās, 2 Nimeṣas, and 1/7th; if of mortals, 1.851.428 years, 6 months, 24 days, 12 Nāris, 12 Kalās, 25 Kāṣṭhas, and 10 Nimeṣas. It will be observed, that in the Kalpa we have the regular descending series 4, 3, 2, with cyphers multiplied ad libitum.
[7]: The Brahma Vaivartta says 108 years, but this is unusual. Brahmā's life is but a Nimeṣa of Kṛṣṇa, according to that work; a Nimeṣa of Śiva, according to the Saiva Purāṇa.
--
[9]: In theory the Kalpas are infinite; as the bhaviṣya: 'Excellent sages, thousands of millions of Kalpas have passed, and as many are to come.' In the Li
ga Purāṇa, and others of the Saiva division, above thirty Kalpas are named, and some account given of several, but they are evidently sectarial embellishments. The only Kalpas usually specified are those which follow in the text: the one which was the last, or the Pādma, and the present p. 26 or Vārāha. The first is also commonly called the Brāhma; but the Bhāgavata distinguishes the Brāhma, considering it to be the first of Brahmā's life, whilst the Pādma was the last of the first Parārddha. The terms Manā, or great Kalpa, applied to the Padma, is attached to it only in a general sense; or, according to the commentator, because it comprises, as a minor Kalpa, that in which Brahmā was born from a lotus. Properly, a great Kalpa is not a day, but a life of Brahmā; as in the Brahma Vaivartta: 'Chronologers compute a Kalpa by the life of Brahmā. Minor Kalpas, as Samvartta and the rest, are numerous.' Minor Kalpas here denote every period of destruction, or those in which the Samvartta wind, or other destructive agents, operate. Several other computations of time are found in different Purāṇas, but it will be sufficient to notice one which occurs in the Hari Vaṃśa, as it is peculiar, and because it is not quite correctly given in M. Langlois' translation. It is the calculation of the Mānava time, or time of a Menu.
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1.03 - Meeting the Master - Meeting with others, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Question: Dr. bhagwandas and some others are trying to spiritualise politics particularly the western institutions in our politics, and there is the village organisation work also. What is your opinion in this matter?
Sri Aurobindo: These are two things which must be kept apart. There are first those who want to work for political freedom and they fix that as their final goal. Secondly, there are those who want to organise the future life of the community in India.
--
Now the problem is how to organise the future life of the country. I myself am a communist in a certain sense but I cannot agree with the Russian method. One may ask: After all what has Russia created? Even among our present workers in India there is a lack of that definite idea as to what they are about and what kind of thing they want. That is the reason why men like Dr. bhagwandas propose some mental constructions like asking men to go in for politics after 50 years of age and so on. That does not seem to me to be the correct method, and I believe whoever pursues it will encounter complete failure.
Question: Anything would be better than the present condition.
--
A young man from Tinnevelly, knowing Sanskrit, came this morning and wanted to see Sri Aurobindo. He said he had received inspiration from par shakti to go to Sri Aurobindo who is bhagawan. He was directly going up the staircase without asking anyone when he was stopped. It seemed that he had been fasting for some days; he brought fruits to offer to Sri Aurobindo.
Disciple: Like the other man, shall I send this one to Ramana Maharshi ?
--
Hari bhai: No. But I have taken the Yoga, and Kashi bhai is staying there, his son Mahesh has taken the Yoga and bhaktiben has been given instructions for bhakti Yoga.
Gandhi: What is the method of Yoga? How do you meditate? Do you meditate on an image or do you practise Pranayama, Dhyana and Dharana?
--
P. T.: It may if one realises the bhava the feeling that is behind spinning.
Sri Aurobindo: I am afraid, you can't get that bhava from me. You can only get the work of Charkha with a sentry over me! (Laughter)
Disciple: But why only Charkha? Why not the oil-mill? It is also common action.
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1.03 - Preparing for the Miraculous, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
cal body has not yet been fulfilled, for bharat Mata re-
mains divided into India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
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1.03 - Self-Surrender in Works - The Way of The Gita, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The greatest gospel of spiritual works ever yet given to the race, the most perfect system of Karmayoga known to man in the past, is to be found in the bhagavad Gita. In that famous episode of the Maha bharata the great basic lines of Karmayoga are laid down for all time with an incomparable mastery and the infallible eye of an assured experience. It is true that the path alone, as the ancients saw it, is worked out fully: the perfect fulfilment, the highest secret1 is hinted rather than developed; it is kept back as an unexpressed part of a supreme mystery. There are obvious reasons for this reticence; for the fulfilment is in any case a matter for experience and no teaching can express it. It cannot be described in a way that can really be understood by a mind that has not the effulgent transmuting experience. And for the soul that has passed the shining portals and stands in the blaze of the inner light, all mental and verbal description is as poor as it is superfluous, inadequate and an impertinence. All divine consummations have perforce to be figured by us in the inapt and deceptive terms of a language which was made to fit the normal experience of mental man; so expressed, they can be rightly understood only by those who already know, and, knowing, are able to give these poor external terms a changed, inner and transfigured sense. As the Vedic Rishis insisted in the beginning, the words of the supreme wisdom are expressive only to those who are already of the wise. The Gita at its cryptic close may seem by its silence to stop short of that solution for which we are seeking; it pauses at the borders of the highest spiritual mind and does not cross them into the splendours of the supramental Light. And yet its secret of dynamic, and not only static, identity with the inner Presence, its highest mystery of absolute surrender to the Divine Guide, Lord and Inhabitant of our nature, is the central secret. This surrender is the indispensable means of the supramental change and, again, it is through the supramental change that the dynamic identity becomes possible.
1 rahasyam uttamam.
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1.03 - Some Practical Aspects, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
the silent activity of woodl and creatures and insects. Yet no city-dweller should fail to give to the organs of his soul and spirit, as they develop, the nurture that comes from the inspired teachings of spiritual research. If our eyes cannot follow the woods in their mantel of green every spring, day by day, we should instead open our soul to the glorious teachings of the bhagavad Gita, or of St. John's Gospel, or of St. Thomas Kempis, and to the descriptions resulting from spiritual science. There are many ways to the summit of insight, but much depends on the right choice. The spiritually experienced could say much concerning these paths, much that might seem strange to the uninitiated. Someone, for instance, might be very far advanced on the path; he might be standing, so to speak, at the very entrance of sight and hearing with soul and spirit; he is then fortunate enough to make a journey over the calm or maybe tempestuous ocean, and a veil falls away from the eyes of his soul; suddenly he becomes a seer. Another is also so far advanced that this veil only needs to be loosened; this occurs through some stroke of destiny. On another this stroke might well have had the effect
p. 113
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1.03 - Spiritual Realisation, The aim of Bhakti-Yoga, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
object:1.03 - Spiritual Realisation, The aim of bhakti-Yoga
author class:Swami Vivekananda
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SPIRITUAL REALISATION, THE AIM OF bhaKTI-YOGA
To the bhakta these dry details are necessary only to streng then his will; beyond that they are of no use to him. For he is treading on a path which is fitted very soon to lead him beyond the hazy and turbulent regions of reason, to lead him to the realm of realisation. He, soon, through the mercy of the Lord, reaches a plane where pedantic and powerless reason is left far behind, and the mere intellectual groping through the dark gives place to the daylight of direct perception. He no more reasons and believes, he almost perceives. He no more argues, he senses. And is not this seeing God, and feeling God, and enjoying God higher than everything else? Nay, bhaktas have not been wanting who have maintained that it is higher than even Moksha liberation. And is it not also the highest utility? There are people and a good many of them too in the world who are convinced that only that is of use and utility which brings to man creature-comforts. Even religion, God, eternity, soul, none of these is of any use to them, as they do not bring them money or physical comfort. To such, all those things which do not go to gratify the senses and appease the appetites are of no utility. In every mind, utility, however, is conditioned by its own peculiar wants. To men, therefore, who never rise higher than eating, drinking, begetting progeny, and dying, the only gain is in sense enjoyments; and they must wait and go through many more births and reincarnations to learn to feel even the faintest necessity for anything higher. But those to whom the eternal interests of the soul are of much higher value than the fleeting interests of this mundane life, to whom the gratification of the senses is but like the thoughtless play of the baby, to them God and the love of God form the highest and the only utility of human existence. Thank God there are some such still living in this world of too much worldliness.
bhakti-Yoga, as we have said, is divided into the Gauni or the preparatory, and the Par or the supreme forms. We shall find, as we go on, how in the preparatory stage we unavoidably stand in need of many concrete helps to enable us to get on; and indeed the mythological and symbological parts of all religions are natural growths which early environ the aspiring soul and help it Godward. It is also a significant fact that spiritual giants have been produced only in those systems of religion where there is an exuberant growth of rich mythology and ritualism. The dry fanatical forms of religion which attempt to eradicate all that is poetical, all that is beautiful and sublime, all that gives a firm grasp to the infant mind tottering in its Godward way the forms which attempt to break down the very ridge-poles of the spiritual roof, and in their ignorant and superstitious conceptions of truth try to drive away all that is life-giving, all that furnishes the formative material to the spiritual plant growing in the human soul such forms of religion too soon find that all that is left to them is but an empty shell, a contentless frame of words and sophistry with perhaps a little flavour of a kind of social scavengering or the socalled spirit of reform.
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1.03 - The End of the Intellect, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
would see him seated there in the same posture for hours on end, his eyes fixed on his book, like a yogi lost in the contemplation of the Divine, unaware of all that went on around him. Even if the house had caught fire, it would not have broken this concentration." He read English, Russian, German, and French novels, but also, in ever larger numbers, the sacred books of India, the Upanishads, the bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, although he had never been in a temple except as an observer. "Once, having returned from the College," one of his friends recalls, "Sri Aurobindo sat down, picked up a book at random and started to read, while Z and some friends began a noisy game of chess. After half an hour, he put the book down and took a cup of tea.
We had already seen him do this many times and were waiting eagerly for a chance to verify whether he read the books from cover to cover or only scanned a few pages here and there. Soon the test began. Z
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1.03 - The Sephiros, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Astrologieally its planet is Venus $. It should follow in consequence from this that the gods and qualities of Net- sach relate to Love, Victory, and to the harvest. Aphro- dite (Venus) is the Lady of Love and Beauty, with the power of bestowing her beauty and charms to others. The whole implication of this Sephirah is of love - albeit a love of a sexual nature. Hathor is the Egyptian equivalent and is a lesser aspect of the Mother Isis. She is depicted as a cow goddess, representing the generative forces of Nature, and she was the protectress of agriculture and the fruits of the earth. bhavani is the Hindu goddess of Netsach.
Rose is the flower appurtenant, and Red Sandal is the perfume. It is common knowledge that in some diseases of a venereal ( $ ) origin oils of sandalwood are employed.
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1.03 - VISIT TO VIDYASAGAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
On the afternoon of August 5 the Master left Dakshineswar in a hackney carriage, accompanied by bhavanath, M., and Hazra. Vidyasagar lived in Badurbagan, in central Calcutta, about six miles from Dakshineswar. On the way Sri Ramakrishna talked with his companions; but as the carriage neared Vidyasagar's house his mood suddenly changed. He was overpowered with divine ecstasy. Not noticing this, M. pointed out the garden house where Raja Rammohan Roy had lived. The Master was annoyed and said, "I don't care about such things now." He was going into an ecstatic state.
The carriage stopped in front of. Vidyasagar's house. The Master alighted, supported by M., who then led the way. In the courtyard were many flowering plants. As the Master walked to the house he said to M., like a child, pointing to his shirt-button: "My shirt is un buttoned. Will that offend Vidyasagar?" "Oh, no!" said M. "Don't be anxious about it.
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"One man may read the bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtuous.
"You may ask, 'How, then, can one explain misery and sin and unhappiness?' The answer is that these apply only to the jiva. Brahman is unaffected by them. There is poison in a snake; but though others may die if bitten by it, the snake itself is not affected by the poison.
--
"The vijnni further sees that what is Brahman is the bhagavan, the Personal God. He who is beyond the three gunas is the bhagavan, with His six supernatural powers.
Living beings, the universe, mind, intelligence, love, renunciation, knowledge - all these are the manifestations of His power. (With a laugh) If an aristocrat has neither house nor property, or if he has been forced to sell them, one doesn't call him an aristocrat any more. (All laugh.) God is endowed with the six supernatural powers. If He were not who would obey Him? (All laugh.)
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1.040 - Re-Educating the Mind, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
As I mentioned, the main point to be remembered here is that while concentrating on any object, no external thought should be allowed, because the thought of an external object is the distraction which prevents concentration. The mind cannot be wholly present in the given object if there is another thing side by side or along with it. This is then vyabhicharini bhakti or divided devotion, as they call it. When we think of two things at the same time because of the presence of another thing outside that given object, the devotion is split. The force of the mind gets diminished on account of a channelisation of the mental energy in two directions. In the beginning, the mind will refuse to concentrate like this because it is fed by diverse food. So what is essential in the beginning is to diminish the directions in which the mind moves to the minimum possible. Though it is not possible to bring the mind to a single point, we can bring it to the minimum possible or conceivable number of items of concentration.
This is the purpose of satsanga, listening to discourses of a spiritual and philosophical nature, study of sacred scriptures, svadhyaya, etc. Direct meditation is impossible, for reasons well known; therefore, we go to satsangas and listen to discourses touching upon various subjects, though within a limited circle. The subjects are variegated and yet limited to certain features. Similar is the case with study. If we study the Srimad bhagavata, or the Ramayana, or the bhagavadgita, the mind is given a large scope to think of many ideas and to bring into it notions of various features of reality. Though there is a variety presented in the study of a scripture of this kind, this variety is ultimately limited to a particular pattern of thinking.
The whole of the Srimad bhagavata, to give only one concrete example, is filled with thousands of ideas expressed in various ways. Though these ideas are many, they are kindred, essentially. Therefore, the chaotic movement of the mind is brought to an end, and the first step is taken in bringing the mind under control by allowing it to think of sympathetic thoughts, though they may be variegated in their structure. There are several members in a family. Each person is different from the other one is tall, one is short, one is very active, another is idle, one is working outside, one is working inside, one is a man, and another is a woman. There are all sorts of persons in a family, but yet they are kindred spirits there is a sympathy of character among them. This is the reason why we call them a family, though they are individuals of different natures altogether. Likewise is any type of organisation it may be an institution; it may be a parliament; it may be a government or it may even be an army it may be anything. In the army we have thousands of people of different natures, yet they are brought together by a single ideal.
Likewise, by introducing a common background of a type of organisation in the midst of variegated ideas, the mind can be brought within the circumference of a given purpose. This practice should be continued for long time, until it becomes possible to reduce the size of the circumference. The ideas become less and less in number, so that we will be able to get on with only a few thoughts throughout our day. There is no need to think a hundred thoughts, because it is not the number of thoughts that is important, but their quality. We may be thinking of a million things in a shallow manner, which may not lead to success; but we may be thinking of only a few things in a very deep and profound way, and that type of thinking will be more beneficial in the long run, as we know very well.
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1.04 - ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
THE MASTER WAS CONVERSING with Kedr and some other devotees in his room in the temple garden. Kedr was a government official and had spent several years at Dcc, in East Bengal, where he had become a friend of Vijay Goswami. The two would spend a great part of their time together, talking about Sri Ramakrishna and his spiritual experiences. Kedr had once been a member of the Brahmo Samaj. He followed the path of bhakti. Spiritual talk always brought tears to his eyes.
It was five o'clock in the afternoon. Kedr was very happy that day, having arranged a religious festival for Sri Ramakrishna. A singer had been hired by Ram, and the whole day passed in joy.
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MASTER: "After I had experienced samdhi, my mind craved intensely to hear only about God. I would always search for places where they were reciting or explaining the sacred books, such as the bhagavata, the Maha bharata, and the Adhytma Rmyana. I used to go to Krishnakishore to hear him read the Adhytma Rmyana.
Krishnakishore's faith
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DEVOTEE: "Yes, sir. The other day I dreamt a strange dream. I saw the whole world enveloped in water. There was water on all sides. A few boats were visible, but suddenly huge waves appeared and sank them. I was about to board a ship with a few others, when we saw a brahmin walking over that expanse of water. I asked him, 'How can you walk over the deep?' The brahmin said with a smile: 'Oh, there is no difficulty about that. There is a bridge under the water.' I said to him, 'Where are you going?' 'To bhawanipur, the city of the Divine Mother', he replied. 'Wait a little', I cried. 'I shall accompany you.' "
MASTER: "Oh. I am thrilled to hear the story!"
--
At dawn some of the devotees were up. They saw the Master, naked as a child, pacing up and down the room, repeating the names of the various gods and goddesses. His voice was sweet as nectar. Now he would look at the Ganges, now stop in front of the pictures hanging on the wall and bow down before them, chanting all the while the holy names in his sweet voice. He chanted: "Veda, Purana, Tantra; Gita, Gayatri; bhagavata, bhakta, bhagavan." Referring to the Gita, he repeated many times, "Tagi, tagi, tagi."
Now and then he would say: "O Mother, Thou art verily Brahman, and Thou art verily akti. Thou art Purusha and Thou art Prakriti. Thou art Virat. Thou art the Absolute, and Thou dost manifest Thyself as the Relative. Thou art verily the twenty-four cosmic principles."
--
About nine o'clock in the morning M. was seated on the floor of the Master's room at Dakshineswar, near Sri Ramakrishna, who was reclining on the small couch. Rakhal was then living with the Master, and Narendra and bhavanath visited him frequently.
Baburam had seen him only once or twice.
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Boys like Narendra, bhavanath, and Rakhal are my very intimate disciples. They are not to be thought lightly of. Feed them one day. What do you think of Narendra?"
M: "I think very highly of him, sir."
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1.04 - Homage to the Twenty-one Taras, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
Then the bhagavan Buddha, a victorious, perfected, and transcendent
lord, spoke to Manjughosha, the immortal bodhisattva of wisdom,
--
in your mind. Then the bhagavan went on to speak the dharani in
praise of Arya Tara.2
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1.04 - Hymns of Bharadwaja, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:1.04 - Hymns of bharadwaja
author class:Sri Aurobindo
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Hymns of bharadwaja
MANDALA SIX
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1.04 - Narayana appearance, in the beginning of the Kalpa, as the Varaha (boar), #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
[2]: This is the well known verse of Menu, I. 8, rendered by Sir Wm. Jones, "The waters are called Nārā, because they were the production of Nara, or 'the spirit' of God; and since they were his first Ayana, or place of motion, he thence is named Nārāyaṇa, or 'moving on the waters.'" Now although there can be little doubt that this tradition is in substance the same as that of Genesis, the language of the translation is perhaps more scriptural than p. 28 is quite warranted. The waters, it is said in the text of Manu, were the progeny of Nara, which Kullūka bhaṭṭa explains Paramātmā, the supreme soul; that is, they were the first productions of God in creation. Ayana, instead of 'place of motion,' is explained by Āsraya, place of abiding.' Nārāyaṇa means, therefore, he whose place of abiding was the deep. The verse occurs in several of the Purāṇas, in general in nearly the same words, and almost always as a quotation, as in our text The Li
ga, Vāyu, and Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇas, citing the same, have a somewhat different reading; or, 'Āpa (is the same as) Nārā, or bodies (Tanava); such, we have heard (from the Vedas), is the meaning of Apa. He who sleeps in them, is thence called Nārāyaṇa.' The ordinary sense of Tanu is either 'minute' or 'body,' nor does it occur amongst the synonymes of water in the Nirukta of the Vedas. It may perhaps be intended to say, that Nārā or Apa has the meaning of 'bodily forms,' in which spirit is enshrined, and of which the waters, with Viṣṇu resting upon them, are a type; for there is much mysticism in the Purāṇas in which the passage thus occurs. Even in them, however, it is introduced in the usual manner, by describing the world as water alone, and Viṣṇu reposing upon the deep: ### Vāyu P. The Bhāgavata has evidently attempted to explain the ancient text: 'When the embodied god in the beginning divided the mundane egg, and issued forth, then, requiring an abiding-place, he created the waters: the pure created the pure. In them, his own created, he abode for a thousand years, and thence received the name of Nārāyaṇa: the waters being the product of the embodied deity:' i. e. they were the product of Nara or Viṣṇu, as the first male or Virāt, and were therefore termed Nāra: and from there being his Ayana or Sthāna, his 'abiding place,' comes his epithet of Nārāyaṇa.
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1.04 - The Core of the Teaching, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Knowledge. The last step is bhaktiyoga, adoration and seeking of the supreme Self as the Divine Being, and here the insistence is on devotion; but the knowledge is not subordinated, only raised, vitalised and fulfilled, and still the sacrifice of works continues; the double path becomes the triune way of knowledge, works and devotion. And the fruit of the sacrifice, the one fruit still placed before the seeker, is attained, union with the divine Being and oneness with the supreme divine nature.
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1.04 - The Divine Mother - This Is She, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
I remember Nishikanto, a sadhak-poet, who fell seriously ill after being cured of an equally serious illness. The Mother giving the occult reason told me that when he came to her on his birthday, she saw a definite crack in his faith. But a man of quite a different temperament, he pulled himself up, while the cancer-patient could not. "Why take up such a case at all?" one may ask. Well, it was the patient who made the choice; he had no faith in the usual medico-surgical treatment whose efficacy is at best doubtful. Here, he had at least the unique opportunity to live under the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's direct care and supervision. For a bhakta, there cannot be a greater boon. If he lives, it will be glorious; if he dies, he will have a better life in the next birth.
Some years ago the Mother said in connection with another cancer case that was referred to her from outside, that cancer has been conquered in the subtle world and the conquest will soon materialise here.
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It was a challenging problem suddenly thrown upon her by Nature. Our Ashram life also took a different turn; the old barriers completely broke down under this influx. No longer a hermitage of peace, silence and inner expansion and acquisition, it had to be tested in the crucible of outer life. We soon became one spiritual family. The Mother had to look after the mental, vital and physical health of the green ones, both boys and girls. Along with the necessity, means also came forward to meet the demand. Sisirkumar Mitra from Vishwa bharati, with a long teaching experience, and Pranab Kumar bhattacharya from Calcutta, an expert in physical culture, came and were given charge of the two wings of education, mental and physical. Particularly in young Pranab, the Mother found an excellent instrument for physical culture and with his help she quickly built up the centre of physical education. I don't need to discuss the place and raison d'etre of physical education in our Ashram life when Sri Aurobindo has done it so well in his essay on The Divine Body.[6] My vision being more earthly, I can see that it has served the most important purpose of keeping the inflammable material of young boys, girls and children under a strict supervision through compulsory activities from 4.30 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. or so. One can very well imagine what would have been the moral effect on them, had there not been this central control, especially when the children here are given a great freedom of movement. Those young people who have cut themselves off from these collective activities suffer much from psychological troubles. Most of the ills of the youth outside have their origin in having no occupation after college and school hours. After Sri Aurobindo's passing, the Mother gave me one sound counsel, "Be in the atmosphere," by which she meant that I should not isolate myself from the collective activities. When there was a demand for more holidays, the Mother remarked, "I have started the School so that the children may not knock about in the streets." Since then, Sisirkumar has resisted the pressure of the students for more holidays.
The Mother now began to identify herself more and more with this new generation. In the evening when Sri Aurobindo was enjoying his solitude, the Mother, after her tennis, busied herself in the Playground meeting the children, watching their games and exercises, taking classes, etc. and through all these means, establishing an intimate contact with them. The exercises were done in cumbersome pyjamas which consequently checked free movement. One evening when I went to visit the Playground, I found the gate closed. The gate-keeper told me that the Mother did not want anyone except the group-members to enter the Playground. When it was thrown open we found, to our surprise, that the girls were doing exercises in shorts! How did this revolutionary change come about? Here, in brief, is the story from one who played an active part in it. One day, one of the girls, doing her exercises in pyjamas in the Playground, fell down and got hurt owing to the impractical dress. When the Mother was told about it, she listened quietly. After a couple of days, she called Bratati, one of the sadhikas of her intimate circle (she had such small intimate groups of young boys, girls and adults) and said, "I have solved the problem of the uniform. The girls will put on white shorts, a white shirt and a kitty-cap on the head for their hair. Prepare them and try them on yourself. Pyjamas are unwieldy. When you are ready, let me know about it." When everything was ready, she informed the Mother and a day was fixed for the rehearsal in strict privacy. The Mother was pleased with the design. Calling the girls together she gave a short impressive talk on the new experiment and the necessity for trying it. They at once fell in with the proposal and adopted the new uniform. But what was the reaction to this drastic step? Some, particularly old people, were shocked to see their daughters scantily dressed and doing exercises jointly with boys; a few conservative guardians were planning to take their wards away from such a modernised Ashram. I, personally, admired, on the one hand, the revolutionary step taken by the Mother far in advance of the time in Eastern countries, in anticipation of the modern movement in dress; on the other hand, my cautious mind, or as Sri Aurobindo would say, my coward-mind, could not but feel the risk involved in this forward venture. At the same time I knew that the Mother's very nature is to face danger, if necessary. And whenever we had tried to argue with her that we were doing things which were not done outside, she replied sharply, "Why should we follow the others? They have no ideas, we have ideas. I have come to break down old conventions and superstitions." Besides, whatever measures she adopts are not done for the sake of novelty or from mental reasons. "Mother is guided by her intuition," Sri Aurobindo reminded us very often. Also, I believe, she prepares the ground in the occult planes and manipulates the forces to her advantage before she takes any hazardous step. That is why we hear her say, "Wait, wait!" for the opportune moment, I suppose. We can realise now the wisdom of her vision in taking that revolutionary step. Further, I think it was one of the most effective means to eliminate sex-consciousness between the male and the female. We are in this respect much better than before now that shorts have become almost our normal dress.
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1.04 - The Gods of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Saraswati is not even here the goddess of speech whose sole function is to inspire & guide the singer in his hymn. In other passages she may be merely bharati,theMuse. But here there are greater depths of thought & soul-experience. She has to do things which mere speech cannot do. And even if we were to take her here as the divine Muse, still the functions asked of her are too great, there is too little need of all these high intellectual motions, for a mere invitation to Rain&Star Gods to share in a pouring of the Soma-wine. She could do that without all this high intellectual & spiritual labour. Even, therefore, if it be a material sacrifice whichMadhuchchhanda is offering, its material aspects can be no more than symbolical. Unless indeed the rest of the hymn contradicts the intellectual & spiritual purport which we have discovered in these closing verses, fullon the face of them & accepting the plainest & most ordinary meaning for each single word in themof deep psychological knowledge, moral & spiritual aspiration & a supreme poetical art.
I do not propose to study the earlier verses of the hymn with the same care as we have expended on the closing dedication to Saraswati,that would lead me beyond my immediate purpose. A rapid glance through them to see whether they confirm or contradict our first results will be sufficient. There are three passages, also of three verses each, consecrated successively to the Aswins, Indra & the Visve Devah. I shall give briefly my own view of these three passages and the gods they invoke.
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Indra and Varuna are called to give victory, because both of them are samrat. The words samrat & swarat have in Veda an ascertained philosophical sense.One is swarat when, having self-mastery & self-knowledge, & being king over his whole system, physical, vital, mental & spiritual, free in his being, [one] is able to guide entirely the harmonious action of that being. Swarajya is spiritual Freedom. One is Samrat when one is master of the laws of being, ritam, rituh, vratani, and can therefore control all forces & creatures. Samrajya is divine Rule resembling the power of God over his world. Varuna especially is Samrat, master of the Law which he follows, governor of the heavens & all they contain, Raja Varuna, Varuna the King as he is often styled by Sunahshepa and other Rishis. He too, like Indra & Agni & the Visvadevas, is an upholder & supporter of mens actions, dharta charshaninam. Finally in the fifth sloka a distinction is drawn between Indra and Varuna of great importance for our purpose. The Rishi wishes, by their protection, to rise to the height of the inner Energies (yuvaku shachinam) and have the full vigour of right thoughts (yuvaku sumatinam) because they give then that fullness of inner plenty (vajadavnam) which is the first condition of enduring calm & perfection & then he says, Indrah sahasradavnam, Varunah shansyanam kratur bhavati ukthyah. Indra is the master-strength, desirable indeed, (ukthya, an object of prayer, of longing and aspiration) of one class of those boons (vara, varyani) for which the Rishis praise him, Varuna is the master-strength, equally desirable, of another class of these Vedic blessings. Those which Indra brings, give force, sahasram, the forceful being that is strong to endure & strong to overcome; those that attend the grace of Varuna are of a loftier & more ample description, they are shansya. The word shansa is frequently used; it is one of the fixed terms of Veda. Shall we translate it praise, the sense most suitable to the ritual explanation, the sense which the finally dominant ritualistic school gave to so many of the fixed terms of Veda? In that case Varuna must be urushansa, because he is widely praised, Agni narashansa because he is strongly praised or praised by men,ought not a wicked or cruel man to be nrishansa because he is praised by men?the Rishis call repeatedly on the gods to protect their praise, & Varuna here must be master of things that are praiseworthy. But these renderings can only be accepted, if we consent to the theory of the Rishis as semi-savage poets, feeble of brain, vague in speech, pointless in their style, using language for barbaric ornament rather than to express ideas. Here for instance there is a very powerful indicated contrast, indicated by the grammatical structure, the order & the rhythm, by the singular kratur bhavati, by the separation of Indra & Varuna who have hitherto been coupled, by the assignment of each governing nominative to its governed genitive and a careful balanced order of words, first giving the master Indra then his province sahasradavnam, exactly balancing them in the second half of the first line the master Varuna & then his province shansyanam, and the contrast thus pointed, in the closing pada of the Gayatri all the words that in their application are common at once to all these four separated & contrasted words in the first line. Here is no careless writer, but a style careful, full of economy, reserve, point, force, and the thought must surely correspond. But what is the contrast forced on us with such a marshalling of the stylists resources? That Indras boons are force-giving, Varunas praiseworthy, excellent, auspicious, what you will? There is not only a pointless contrast, but no contrast at all. No, shansa & shansya must be important, definite, pregnant Vedic terms expressing some prominent idea of the Vedic system. I shall show elsewhere that shansa is in its essential meaning self-expression, the bringing out of our sat or being that which is latent in it and manifesting it in our nature, in speech, in our general impulse & action. It has the connotation of self-expression, aspiration, temperament, expression of our ideas in speech; then divulgation, publication, praiseor in another direction, cursing. Varuna is urushansa because he is the master of wide self-expression, wide aspirations, a wide, calm & spacious temperament, Agni narashansa because he is master of strong self-expression, strong aspirations, a prevailing, forceful & masterful temperament;nrishansa had originally the same sense, but was afterwards diverted to express the fault to which such a temper is prone,tyranny, wrath & cruelty; the Rishis call to the gods to protect their shansa, that which by their yoga & yajna they have been able to bring out in themselves of being, faculty, power, joy,their self-expression. Similarly, shansya here means all that belongs to self-expression, all that is wide, noble, ample in the growth of a soul. It will follow from this rendering that Indra is a god of force, Varuna rather a god of being and as it appears from other epithets, of being when it is calm, noble, wide, self-knowing, self-mastering, moving freely in harmony with the Law of things because it is aware of that Law and accepts it. In that acceptance is his mighty strength; therefore is he even more than the gods of force the king, the giver of internal & external victory, rule, empire, samrajya to his votaries. This is Varuna.
We see the results & the conditions of the action ofVaruna in the four remaining verses. By their protection we have safety from attack, sanema, safety for our shansa, our rayah, our radhas, by the force of Indra, by the protecting greatness of Varuna against which passion & disturbance cast themselves in vain, only to be destroyed. This safety & this settled ananda or delight, we use for deep meditation, ni dhimahi, we go deep into ourselves and the object we have in view in our meditation is prarechanam, the Greek katharsis, the cleansing of the system mental, bodily, vital, of all that is impure, defective, disturbing, inharmonious. Syad uta prarechanam! In this work of purification we are sure to be obstructed by the powers that oppose all healthful change; but Indra & Varuna are to give us victory, jigyushas kritam. The final result of the successful purification is described in the eighth sloka. The powers of the understanding, its various faculties & movements, dhiyah, delivered from self-will & rebellion, become obedient to Indra & Varuna; obedient to Varuna, they move according to the truth & law, the ritam; obedient to Indra they fulfil with that passivity in activity, which we seek by Yoga, all the works to which mental force can apply itself when it is in harmony with Varuna & the ritam. The result is sharma, peace. Nothing is more remarkable in the Veda than the exactness with which hymn after hymn describes with a marvellous simplicity & lucidity the physical & psychological processes through which Indian Yoga proceeds. The process, the progression, the successive movements of the soul here described are exactly what the Yogin experiences today so many thousands of years after the Veda was revealed. No wonder, it is regarded as eternal truth, not the expression of any particular mind, not paurusheya but impersonal, divine & revealed.
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1.04 - The Sacrifice the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is clear that a conception of this kind and its effective practice must carry in them three results that are of a central importance for our spiritual ideal. It is evident, to begin with, that, even if such a discipline is begun without devotion, it leads straight and inevitably towards the highest devotion possible; for it must deepen naturally into the completest adoration imaginable, the most profound God-love. There is bound up with it a growing sense of the Divine in all things, a deepening communion with the Divine in all our thought, will and action and at every moment of our lives, a more and more moved consecration to the Divine of the totality of our being. Now these implications of the Yoga of works are also of the very essence of an integral and absolute bhakti. The seeker who puts them into living practice makes in himself continually a constant, active and effective representation of the very spirit of self-devotion, and it is inevitable that out of it there should emerge the most engrossing worship of the Highest to whom is given this service. An absorbing love for the Divine Presence to whom he feels an always more intimate closeness, grows upon the consecrated worker. And with it is born or in it is contained a universal love too for all these beings, living forms and creatures that are habitations of the Divinenot the brief restless grasping emotions of division, but the settled selfless love that is the deeper vibration of oneness. In all the seeker begins to meet the one Object of his adoration and service. The way of works turns by this road of sacrifice to meet the path of Devotion; it can be itself a devotion as complete, as absorbing, as integral as any the desire of the heart can ask for or the passion of the mind can imagine.
Next, the practice of this Yoga demands a constant inward remembrance of the one central liberating knowledge, and a constant active externalising of it in works comes in too to intensify the remembrance. In all is the one Self, the one Divine is all; all are in the Divine, all are the Divine and there is nothing else in the universe,this thought or this faith is the whole background until it becomes the whole substance of the consciousness of the worker. A memory, a self-dynamising meditation of this kind, must and does in its end turn into a profound and uninterrupted vision and a vivid and all-embracing consciousness of that which we so powerfully remember or on which we so constantly meditate. For it compels a constant reference at each moment to the Origin of all being and will and action and there is at once an embracing and exceeding of all particular forms and appearances in That which is their cause and upholder. This way cannot go to its end without a seeing vivid and vital, as concrete in its way as physical sight, of the works of the universal Spirit everywhere. On its summits it rises into a constant living and thinking and willing and acting in the presence of the Supramental, the Transcendent. Whatever we see and hear, whatever we touch and sense, all of which we are conscious, has to be known and felt by us as That which we worship and serve; all has to be turned into an image of the Divinity, perceived as a dwelling-place of his Godhead, enveloped with the eternal Omnipresence. In its close, if not long before it, this way of works turns by communion with the Divine Presence, Will and Force into a way of Knowledge more complete and integral than any the mere creature intelligence can construct or the search of the intellect can discover.
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1.04 - The Silent Mind, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
the experience as he first had it with another yogi, bhaskar Lele, who spent three days with him: All developed mental men, those who get beyond the average, have in one way or other, or at least at certain times and for certain purposes to separate the two parts of the mind,
the active part, which is a factory of thoughts and the quiet masterful part which is at once a Witness and a Will, observing them, judging,
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1.04 - What Arjuna Saw - the Dark Side of the Force, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
The bhagavad Gita, a part of the ancient Indian epos Ma-
ha bharata, is one of the great creations of the human spirit,
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That the Maha bharata, the great war of the bharatas, has
been a historic event is not in doubt, but the date of the war
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1.052 - Yoga Practice - A Series of Positive Steps, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Such an apprehension that any peculiar individual feature can reveal the whole of truth is regarded as the lowest type of understanding. Yat tu ktsnavad ekasmin krye saktam ahaitukam, atattvrthavad alpa ca tat tmasam udhtam (B.G. XVIII.22), says the bhagavadgita. The lowest type of knowledge is where a person clings to an object as if it is everything and there is nothing outside it it is all reality. But, this feeling that a peculiar object is all reality is not sincere. It is an insincere feeling which can subject itself to modifications under other circumstances.
My child, thou art everything, says a mother to her only child. But she has a false affection because she does not really believe that it is everything, though there is an expression of that kind when emotions prevail. If that child is everything, she cannot have interest in anything else in this world. But, is it true? She has hundreds of interests other than her baby, though she falsely makes an exclamation that it is everything her soul, her heart, her alter ego, and what not.
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The famous exhortation on moderation in the sixth chapter of the bhagavadgita is to the point. Yukthra-vihrasya yukta-ceasya karmasu, yukta-svapnvabodhasya yogo bhavati dukhah (B.G. VI.17): The pain-destroying yoga comes to that person who is moderate in every manner. Ntyanatas tu yogosti (B.G. VI.16): Yoga does not come to one who eats too much, enjoys too much, or indulges in the senses too much. Na caikntam ananata (B.G. VI.16):One who is excessively austere also is far from yoga. Na cti svapnalasya jgrato naiva crjuna (B.G. VI.16): One who is excessively torpid and lethargic and given to overindulgence in sleeping is far from yoga, but one who remains excessively awake to the torture of the body and the mind is also far from yoga.
Therefore, the wisdom of the practice consists in a correct understanding of the necessities under the given circumstances. These necessities go on changing from time to time and are not a set standard. We cannot say that todays necessity may also be tomorrows necessity. Just now, when it is hot and sultry, I may require a glass of cold water, but it does not mean that I should go on drinking cold water always, because the climatic conditions may not require it.
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1.053 - A Very Important Sadhana, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
There are various other methods of svadhyaya. It depends upon the state of ones mind how far it is concentrated, how far it is distracted, what these desires are that have remained frustrated inside, what the desires are that have been overcome, and so on. The quality of the mind will determine the type of svadhyaya that one has to practise. If nothing else is possible, do parayana of holy scriptures the Sundara Kanda, the Valmiki Ramayana or any other Ramayana, the Srimad bhagavata Mahapurana, the Srimad bhagavadgita, the Moksha Dharma Parva of the Maha bharata, the Vishnu Purana, or any other suitable spiritual text. It has to be recited again and again, every day at a specific time, in a prescribed manner, so that this sadhana itself becomes a sort of meditation because what is meditation but hammering the mind, again and again, into a single idea? Inasmuch as abstract meditations are difficult for beginners, these more concrete forms of it are suggested. There are people who recite the Ramayana or the Srimad bhagavata 108 times. They conduct bhagvat Saptaha. The purpose is to bring the mind around to a circumscribed form of function and not allow it to roam about on the objects of sense.
The mind needs variety, no doubt, and it cannot exist without variety. It always wants change. Monotonous food will not be appreciated by the mind, and so the scriptures, especially the larger ones like the Epics, the Puranas, the Agamas, the Tantras, etc., provide a large area of movement for the mind wherein it leisurely roams about to its deep satisfaction, finds variety in plenty, reads stories of great saints and sages, and feels very much thrilled by the anecdotes of Incarnations, etc. But at the same time, with all its variety, we will find that it is a variety with a unity behind it. There is a unity of pattern, structure and aim in the presentation of variety in such scriptures as the Srimad bhagavata, for instance. There are 18,000 verses giving all kinds of detail everything about the cosmic creation and the processes of the manifestation of different things in their gross form, subtle form, causal form, etc. Every type of story is found there. It is very interesting to read it. The mind rejoices with delight when going through such a large variety of detail with beautiful comparisons, etc. But all this variety is like a medical treatment by which we may give varieties of medicine with a single aim. We may give one tablet, one capsule, one injection, and all sorts of things at different times in a day to treat a single disease. The purpose is the continued assertion that God is All, and the whole of creation is a play of the glory of God.
The goal of life in every stage of its manifestation is the vision of God, the experience of God, the realisation of God that God is the Supreme Doer and the Supreme Existence. This is the principle that is driven into the mind again and again by the Srimad bhagavata Mahapurana or such similar texts. If a continued or sustained study of such scriptures is practised, it is purifying. It is a tapas by itself, and it is a study of the nature of ones own Self, ultimately. The word sva is used here to designate this process of study svadhyaya. Also, we are told in one sutra of Patanjali, tad drau svarpe avasthnam (I.3), that the seer finds himself in his own nature when the vrittis or the various psychoses of the mind are inhibited. The purpose of every sadhana is only this much: to bring the mind back to its original source.
The variety of detail that is provided to the mind in the scriptures has an intention not to pamper or cajole the mind, but to treat the mind of its illness of distraction and attachment to external objects. The aim is highly spiritual. Sometimes it is held that japa of a mantra also is a part of svadhyaya. That is a more concentrated form of it, requiring greater willpower. It is not easy to do japa. We may study a book like the Srimad bhagavata with an amount of concentration, but japa is a more difficult process because there we do not have variety. It is a single point at which the mind is made to move, with a single thought almost, with a single epithet or attribute to contemplate upon. It is almost like meditation, and is a higher step than the study of scriptures. Adepts in yoga often tell us that the chanting of a mantra like pranava is tantamount to svadhyaya.
The point is that if you cannot do anything else, at least do this much. Take to regular study so that your day is filled with divine thoughts, philosophical ideas and moods which are spiritual in some way or the other. You may closet yourself in your study for hours together and browse through these profound texts, whatever be the nature of their presentation, because all these philosophical and spiritual presentations through the scriptures and the writings of other masters have one aim namely, the analysis of the structure of things, and enabling the mind to know the inner reality behind this structure. There is a threefold prong provided by Patanjali in this connection wherein he points out that self-control the control of the senses, austerity, or tapas together with svadhyaya, or study of sacred scriptures, will consummate in the adoration of God as the All-reality.
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Nehbhikramanosti pratyavyo na vidyate (B.G.II.40), says the bhagavadgita. Even a little good that we do in this direction has its own effect. Even if we credit one paisa (one-hundredth of an Indian rupee) to our account in the bank, it is a credit, though it is very little. It is only one paisa that we have put there, but still it is there. We cannot say it is not there. Likewise, even a little bit of sincere effort that is put forth in the direction of sense control and devotion to God is a great credit indeed accumulated by the soul. There should not be a doubt whether it will yield fruit. We should not expect fruit in the way we would dream in our mind, because the nature of the response that is generated by the practice depends upon the extent of obstacles that are already present and not eliminated. The peculiar impressions created inside by frustrated feelings will also act as an obstacle. The frustrated feelings are the subtle longings of the mind, deeper than the level of conscious activity, which create a sense of disquiet and displeasure in the mind.
We are always in a mood of unhappiness. We cannot know what has happened to us. We are not satisfied neither with people, nor with our sadhana, nor with anything in this world. This disquiet, peacelessness and displeasure which can manifest as a sustained mood in spiritual seekers is due to the presence of the impressions left by frustrated desires. We have not withdrawn our senses from objects wantonly or deliberately, but we have withdrawn them due a pressure from scriptures, Guru, atmosphere, monastery, or other conditions.
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1.05 - Bhakti Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
object:1.05 - bhakti Yoga
class:chapter
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2. bhakti is supreme love towards God. It is love for loves sake. The devotee wants God and God alone. There is no selfish expectation here.
3. bhakti is the greatest power on this earth. It gushes from ones pure heart. It redeems and saves. It purifies the heart.
4. Devotion is the seed. Faith is the root. Service of saints is the shower. Communion with the Lord is the fruit.
5. bhakti is of two kinds, viz., Apara bhakti (lower type of devotion) and Para bhakti (highest bhakti or Supreme Love). Ringing bells and waving lights is Apara bhakti. In Para bhakti, there is no ritualistic worship. The devotee is absorbed in God.
6. In Supreme Love, the devotee forgets his self entirely. He has only thoughts of God.
7. Para bhakti and Jnana are one. bhakti melts into wisdom in the end. Two have become one now.
8. bhakti grows gradually just as you grow a flower or a tree in a garden. Cultivate bhakti in the garden of your heart gradually.
9. Faith is necessary for attaining God-realisation. Faith can work wonders. Faith can move mountains. Faith can take you to the inner chambers of the Lord, where reason dares not enter.
10. Japa, Kirtan, prayer, service of saints, study of books on bhakti are all aids to devotion.
11. Sattvic food is a help to devotion. Take milk, fruits, etc.
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16. Repeat your Ishta MantraOm Namah Sivaya, Om Namo Narayanaya, Om Namo bhagavate Vasudevayamentally, sometimes verbally when the mind wanders.
17. The five kinds of bhavas are: Santa bhava, Dasya bhava (master-servant relation), Vatsalya bhava (father-son relation), Sakhya bhava (friendship), Madhurya bhava (the relationship of lover and beloved).
18. Bhishma had Santa bhava; Hanuman had Dasya bhava; Jayadeva and Gauranga had Madhurya bhava; the Gopis had Sakhya- bhava; Arjuna and Guha had Sakhya bhava; Yasoda and Vishnuchitta had Vatsalya bhava.
19. Have any kind of bhava that suits your temperament. Develop it again and again.
20. Practise the nine modes of devotion or Nava-vidha bhakti, viz., Sravana (hearing the Lilas of the Lord), Kirtan (singing His Name), Smarana (His remembrance), Padasevana (service of His Feet), Archana (offering flowers), Vandana (prostrations), Dasyam (servant- bhava), Sakhya (His friendship), and Atmanivedana (self-surrender).
21. Say unto the Lord: I am Thine, all is Thine, Thy Will be done. Feel you are an instrument in the hands of the Lord, that the Lord works through your mind, body and senses. Offer all your actions and the fruits of the actions unto the Lord. This is the way to do self-surrender.
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28. A realised bhakta is free from lust, egoism, mine-ness, hatred, jealousy, greed. He is full of humility, compassion and kindness. He sees God in all beings, in all objects. He has equal vision and a balanced mind.
29. Draupadi was an Arta- bhaktini; Nachiketas was Jijnasu- bhakta; Dhruva was an Arthar thee- bhakta; Suka Deva was a Jnani- bhakta; Prahlada was an absolutely Nishkama bhakta.
30. bhakti is immortalising nectar. It transmutes a man into divinity. It makes him perfect. It bestows on him everlasting peace and bliss.
THUS ENDS bhaKTI YOGA
OR THE YOGA OF DEVOTION
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1.05 - CHARITY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Srimad bhagavatam
The second distinguishing mark of charity is that, unlike the lower forms of love, it is not an emotion. It begins as an act of the will and is consummated as a purely spiritual awareness, a unitive love-knowledge of the essence of its object.
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1.05 - Hymns of Bharadwaja, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:1.05 - Hymns of bharadwaja
author class:Sri Aurobindo
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6. O Fire, yearn to the sacrifice that the bringer of the offering casts to thee; found the rapture. Hold firm in the bharadwajas the perfect purification; guard them in their seizing of the riches of the quest.
7. Scatter all hostile things, increase the revealing Word. May we revel in the rapture, strong with the strength of the Heroes, living a hundred winters.
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2. Thou art bhaga of the felicities and thou pourest on us the ecstasy and takest up thy house in us, a pervading presence and a potent splendour. O divine Fire, like Mitra thou art a feeder on the vast Truth and the much joy and beauty.
3. O Fire born of the Truth, O thinker and knower, when consenting with the Child of the Waters thou takest pleasure in a man and speedest him with the Treasure, he becomes a master over beings and in his might slays the Python adversary and becomes a seer and carries out with him the riches of the Dweller in the Cave.
--
3. Be in us the one whom the wolf cannot rend, the god who makes grow the discernment, makes grow the supreme inner Warrior who delivers.11 O Son of Force, extend in mortals the Riches, the wide-spreading House, for the caster of the offering, for bharadwaja the wide-spreading House.
4. Crown must thou the guest shining with light, the Male of the Sun-world, the priest of man's invocation who makes perfect the Rite of the Path. Crown with your acts of purification the Seer whose speech has its home in the Light,12 the Carrier of offerings, the Traveller, the Godhead of Fire.
--
for bharadwaja the giver of the offering, the multitude of
these desirable things!
--
Hymns of bharadwaja
(vAm`n
--
Hymns of bharadwaja
tn, .
--
Hymns of bharadwaja
do EvcqZ
--
33. O forceful Fire, extend to bharadwaja the peace with its
wideness;20 extend to him the desirable riches.
--
Hymns of bharadwaja
40. They bring him like a beast of prey, like a new-born child
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1.05 - Qualifications of the Aspirant and the Teacher, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
bhagavn Ramakrishna used to tell a story of some men who went into a mango orchard and busied themselves in counting the leaves, the twigs, and the branches, examining their colour, comparing their size, and noting down everything most carefully, and then got up a learned discussion on each of these topics, which were undoubtedly highly interesting to them. But one of them, more sensible than the others, did not care for all these things. and instead thereof, began to eat the mango fruit. And was he not wise? So leave this counting of leaves and twigs and note-taking to others. This kind of work has its proper place, but not here in the spiritual domain. You never see a strong spiritual man among these "leaf counters". Religion, the highest aim, the highest glory of man, does not require so much labour. If you want to be a bhakta, it is not at all necessary for you to know whether Krishna was born in Mathur or in Vraja, what he was doing, or just the exact date on which he pronounced the teachings of the Git. You only require to feel the craving for the beautiful lessons of duty and love in the Gita. All the other particulars about it and its author are for the enjoyment of the learned. Let them have what they desire. Say "Shntih, Shntih" to their learned controversies, and let us "eat the mangoes".
The second condition necessary in the teacher is sinlessness. The question is often asked,
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1.05 - THE MASTER AND KESHAB, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Attitude of jnnis and bhakts
"He who is called Brahman by the jnanis is known as tman by the yogis and as bhagavan by the bhaktas. The same brahmin is called priest, when worshipping in the temple, and cook, when preparing a meal in the kitchen. The jnani sticking to the path of knowledge, always reasons about the Reality, saying, 'Not this, not this'. Brahman is neither 'this' nor 'that'; It is neither the universe nor its living beings. Reasoning in this way, the mind becomes steady. Then it disappears and the aspirant goes into samdhi.
This is the knowledge of Brahman. It is the unwavering conviction of the jnani that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. All these names and forms are illusory, like a dream. What Brahman is cannot be described. One cannot even say that Brahman is a Person. This is the opinion of the jnanis, the followers of Vedanta philosophy.
"But the bhaktas accept all the states of consciousness. They take the waking state to be real also. They don't think the world to be illusory, like a dream. They say that the universe is a manifestation of God's power and glory. God has created all these - sky, stars, moon, sun, mountains, ocean, men, animals. They constitute His glory. He is within us, in our hearts. Again, He is outside. The most advanced devotees say that He Himself has become all this - the twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe, and all living beings. The devotee of God wants to eat sugar, not to become sugar. (All laugh.)
"Do you know how a lover of God feels? His attitude is: 'O God, Thou are the Master, and I am Thy servant. Thou art the Mother, and I am Thy child.' Or again: 'Thou art my Father and Mother. Thou art the Whole, and I am a part.' He doesn't like to say, 'I am Brahman.'
--
"But the Reality is one and the same. The difference is only in name. He who is Brahman is verily tman, and again, He is the bhagavan. He is Brahman to the followers of the path of knowledge, Paramatman to the yogis, and bhagavan to the lovers of God."
The steamer had been going toward Calcutta; but the passengers, with their eyes fixed on the Master and their ears given to his nectar-like words, were oblivious of its motion.
--
"Karmayoga is very hard indeed. In the Kaliyuga it is extremely difficult to perform the rites enjoined in the scriptures. Nowadays man's life is centred on food alone. He cannot perform many scriptural rites. Suppose a man is laid up with fever. If you attempt a slow cure with the old-fashioned indigenous remedies, before long his life may be snuffed out. He can't stand much delay. Nowadays the drastic 'D Gupta' mixture is appropriate. In the Kaliyuga the best way is bhaktiyoga, the path of devotion-singing the praises of the Lord, and prayer. The path of devotion alone is the religion for this age. (To the Brahmo devotees) Yours also is the path of devotion. Blessed you are indeed that you chant the name of Hari and sing the Divine Mother's glories. I like your attitude. You don't call the world a dream like the non-dualists. You are not Brahmajnanis like them; you are bhaktas, lovers of God. That you speak of Him as a Person is also good. You are devotees. You will certainly realize Him if you call on Him with sincerity and earnestness."
The boat cast anchor at Kayalaghat and the passengers prepared to disembark. On coming outside they noticed that the full moon was up. The trees, the buildings, and the boats on the Ganges were bathed in its mellow light. A carriage was hailed for the Master, and M. and a few devotees got in with him. The Master asked for Keshab.
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1.05 - The Universe The 0 = 2 Equation, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
It seems to me that this doctrine is based upon a sorites of doubtful validity. To tell you the hideously shameful truth, I hate this doctrine so rabidly that I can hardly trust myself to present it fairly! But I will try. Meanwhile, you can study it in the Upanishads, in the bhagavad-Gita, in Ernst Haeckel's The Riddle of the Universe, and dozens of other classics. The dogma appears to excite its dupes to dithyrambs. I have to admit the "poetry" of the idea; but there is something in me which vehemently rejects it with excruciating and vindictive violence. Possibly, this is because part of our own system runs parallel with the first equations of theirs.
K. The Monists perceive quite clearly and correctly that it is absurd to answer the question "How came these Many things (of which we are aware) to be?" by saying that they came from Many; and "Many" in this connection includes Two. The Universe must therefore be a single phenomenon: make it eternal and all the rest of it i.e. remove all limit of any kind and the Universe explains itself. How then can Opposites exist, as we observe them to do? Is it not the very essence of our original Sorites that the Many must be reducible to the One? They see how awkward this is; so the "devil" of the Dualist is emulsified and evaporated into "illusion;" what they call "Maya" or some equivalent term.
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1.06 - Agni and the Truth, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yad anga dasus.e tvam, agne bhadram karis.yasi; tavet tat satyam angirah..
Upa tvagne dive dive, dos.avastar dhiya vayam; namo bharanta emasi.
Rajantam adhvaran.am, gopam r.tasya ddivim; vardhamanam sve dame.
--
The state of immortality thus attained is conceived as a state of felicity or bliss founded on a perfect Truth and Right, satyam r.tam. We must, I think, understand in this sense the verse that follows. "The good (happiness) which thou wilt create for the giver, that is that truth of thee, O Agni." In other words, the essence of this truth, which is the nature of Agni, is the freedom from evil, the state of perfect good and happiness which the Ritam carries in itself and which is sure to be created in the mortal when he offers the sacrifice by the action of Agni as the divine priest. bhadram means anything good, auspicious, happy and by itself need not carry any deep significance. But we find it in the Veda used, like r.tam, in a special sense. It is described in one of the hymns (V.82) as the opposite of the evil dream (duh.s.vapnyam), the false consciousness of that which is not the Ritam, and of duritam, false going, which means all evil and suffering. bhadram is therefore equivalent to suvitam, right going, which means all good and felicity belonging to the state of the Truth, the Ritam. It is Mayas, the felicity, and the gods who represent the Truthconsciousness are described as mayobhuvah., those who bring or carry in their being the felicity. Thus every part of the Veda, if properly understood, throws light upon every other part. It is only when we are misled by its veils that we find in it an incoherence.
In the next verse there seems to be stated the condition of the effective sacrifice. It is the continual resort day by day, in the night and in the light, of the thought in the human being with submission, adoration, self-surrender, to the divine Will and Wisdom represented by Agni. Night and Day, Naktos.asa, are also symbolical, like all the other gods in the Veda, and the sense seems to be that in all states of consciousness, whether
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1.06 - Incarnate Teachers and Incarnation, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
"Know the Guru to be Me", says Shri Krishna in the bhagavata. The moment the world is absolutely bereft of these, it becomes a hideous hell and hastens on to its destruction.
Higher and nobler than all ordinary ones are another set of teachers, the Avatras of Ishvara, in the world. They can transmit spirituality with a touch, even with a mere wish. The lowest and the most degraded characters become in one second saints at their command. They are the Teachers of all teachers, the highest manifestations of God through man. We cannot see God except through them. We cannot help worshipping them; and indeed they are the only ones whom we are bound to worship.
--
"Fools deride Me who have assumed the human form, without knowing My real nature as the Lord of the universe." Such is Shri Krishna's declaration in the Gita on Incarnation. "When a huge tidal wave comes," says bhagavan Shri Ramakrishna, "all the little brooks and ditches become full to the brim without any effort or consciousness on their own part; so when an Incarnation comes, a tidal wave of spirituality breaks upon the world, and people feel spirituality almost full in the air."
next chapter: 1.07 - The Mantra - OM - Word and Wisdom
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1.06 - MORTIFICATION, NON-ATTACHMENT, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Rabia, the Sufi woman-saint, speaks, thinks and feels in terms of devotional theism; the Buddhist theologian, in terms of impersonal moral Law; the Chinese philosopher, with characteristic humour, in terms of politics; but all three insist on the need for non-attachment to self-interestinsist on it as strongly as does Christ when he reproaches the Pharisees for their egocentric piety, as does the Krishna of the bhagavad Gita, when he tells Arjuna to do his divinely ordained duty without personal craving for, or fear of, the fruits of his actions.
St. Ignatius Loyola was once asked what his feelings would be if the Pope were to suppress the Company of Jesus. A quarter of an hour of prayer, he answered, and I should think no more about it.
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1.06 - Raja Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
33. Meditation on OM with bhava and its meaning removes obstacles in Sadhana and helps to attain Samadhi.
34. Avidya (ignorance), Asmita (egoism), Raga-Dvesha (likes and dislikes), Abhinivesha (clinging to mundane life) are the five Kleshas or afflictions. Destroy these afflictions. You will attain Samadhi.
--
39. A bhakta gets bhava-Samadhi, a Jnani gets Badha-Samadhi, a Raja Yogi gets Nirodha Samadhi.
THUS ENDS RAJA YOGA
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1.06 - The Ascent of the Sacrifice 2 The Works of Love - The Works of Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
1- param bhavam.
2- manus.m tanum asritam.
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1.06 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Three kinds of bhakti
"Similarly, bhakti, devotion, has its sattva. A devotee who possesses it meditates on God in absolute secret, perhaps inside his mosquito net. Others think he is asleep.
Since he is late in getting up, they think perhaps he has not slept well during the night.
--
"An aspirant possessed of rajasic bhakti puts a tilak on his forehead and a necklace of holy rudraksha beads, interspersed with gold ones, around his neck. (All laugh.) At worship he wears a silk cloth.
"A man endowed with tamasic bhakti has burning faith. Such a devotee literally extorts boons from God, even as a robber falls upon a man and plunders his money. 'Bind!
Beat! Kill!'-that is his way, the way of the dacoits."
--
MASTER: "No one can say with finality that God is only 'this' and nothing else. He is formless, and again He has forms. For the bhakta He assumes forms. But He is formless for the jnani, that is, for him who looks on the world as a mere dream. The bhakta feels that he is one entity and the world another. Therefore God reveals Himself to him as a Person. But the jnani-the Vedantist, for instance-always reasons, applying the process of 'Not this, not this'. Through this discrimination he realizes, by his inner perception, that the ego and the universe are both illusory, like a dream. Then the jnani realizes Brahman in his own consciousness. He cannot describe what Brahman is.
"Do you know what I mean? Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the bhakta's love, the water has frozen at places into blocks of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the sun of Knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He is cannot be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find his 'I' any more.
Illusoriness of "I"
--
"The Saguna Brahman is meant for the bhaktas. In other words, a bhakta believes that God has attributes and reveals Himself to men as a Person, assuming forms. It is He who listens to our prayers. The prayers that you utter are directed to Him alone. You are bhaktas, not jnanis or Vedantists. It doesn't matter whether you accept God with form or not. It is enough to feel that God is a Person who listens to our prayers, who creates, preserves, and destroys the universe, and who is endowed with infinite power.
"It is easier to attain God by following the path of devotion."
--
"Yours is the path of bhakti. That is very good; it is an easy path. Who can fully know the infinite God? and what need is there of knowing the Infinite? Having attained this rare human birth, my supreme need is to develop love for the Lotus Feet of God.
"If a jug of water is enough to remove my thirst, why should I measure the quantity of water in a lake? I become drunk on even half a bottle of wine-what is the use of my calculating the quantity of liquor in the tavern? What need is there of knowing the Infinite?
--
It was about half past eight when the evening worship began in the prayer hall. Soon the moon rose in the autumn sky and flooded the trees and creepers of the garden with its light. After prayer the devotees began to sing. Sri Ramakrishna was dancing, intoxicated with love of God. The Brahmo devotees danced around him to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals. All appeared to be in a very joyous mood. The place echoed and reechoed with God's holy name. When the music had stopped, Sri Ramakrishna prostrated himself on the ground and, making salutations to the Divine Mother again and again, said: " bhagavata- bhakta- bhagavan! My salutations at the feet of the jnanis! My salutations at the feet of the bhaktas! I salute the bhaktas who believe in God with form, and I salute the bhaktas who believe in God without form. I salute the knowers of Brahman of olden times. And my salutations at the feet of the modern knowers of Brahman of the Brahmo Samaj!"
Then the Master and the devotees enjoyed a supper of delicious dishes, which Benimadhav, their host, had provided.
--
And a pariah with the love of God is no longer a pariah. Through bhakti an untouchable becomes pure and elevated."
Entanglement of householders
--
much relishes the bhakti of the poor and the lowly, just as the cow relishes fodder mixed with oil-cake. King Duryodhana showed Krishna the splendour of his wealth and riches, but Krishna accepted the hospitality of the poor Vidura. God is fond of His devotees. He runs after the devotee as the cow after the calf."
The Master sang:
--
Dwell, O Lord, O Lover of bhakti,
In the Vrindvan of my heart,
--
MASTER: "Is it possible to understand God's action and His motive? He creates, He preserves, and He destroys. Can we ever understand why He destroys? I say to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother, I do not need to understand. Please give me love for Thy Lotus Feet.' The aim of human life is to attain bhakti. As for other things, the Mother knows best. I have come to the garden to eat mangoes. What is the use of my calculating the number of trees, branches, and leaves? I only eat the mangoes; I don't need to know the number of trees and leaves."
Baburam, M., and Ramdayal slept that night on the floor of the Master's room.
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1.070 - The Seven Stages of Perfection, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The stages of yoga that are going to be mentioned the limbs of yoga as they are called are the stages of the mastery which one gains over phenomena, external and internal, by a systematic ascent to greater and greater degrees of harmony. Thus, yoga is, in a sense, a system of harmony. The bhagavadgita has put it very beautifully: samatva yoga ucyate (B.G. II.48).
In every stage there is an establishment of equilibrium of oneself with the atmosphere. The study of the limbs of yoga is a study of the various stages by which we have to establish this harmony of ourselves with the atmosphere. What is called atmosphere is only a term used to indicate the presence of a factor that is external to oneself. The externality consciousness also gets diminished gradually as mastery is gained more and more.
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1.075 - Self-Control, Study and Devotion to God, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Svdhyyt iadevat saprayoga (II.44): By daily holy study, we set ourselves in tune with the masters who have been responsible for the writing of the scriptures and whose great ideals and ideas are sung in the scriptures. The study of great scriptures like the bhagavadgita, the Maha bharata or the Ramayana puts us in tune with the great thoughts, brains and minds of Vyasa, Valmiki and such other great men. Then, there is a stimulation of a corresponding idea and ideal in our own selves so that we become fit to receive their grace. Not merely receive their grace, we can even contact them, says the sutra. The idea, or the content of the scripture which is the object of our daily study, or svadhyaya, is the medium of contact between ourselves and the ideal of the scripture the deity. It may be the rishi, or it may be a divinity that is the ishta devata. The desired object is the ishta devata, and we will come in contact with it because of the daily contemplation on it through svadhyaya.
These three methods tapas, svadhyaya and Ishvara pranidhana are really the training of the will, the intellect and the emotion. It requires tremendous will to practise tapas, great understanding or intellectual capacity to probe into the meaning of the scriptures, and emotional purity to love God. These three are emphasised in the canons of tapas, svadhyaya and Ishvara pranidhana. By svadhyaya there is ishtadevata samprayogah,says the sutra; there is union of oneself with the deity of ones worship and adoration by a daily brooding over its characters.
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1.07 - Bridge across the Afterlife, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
1 This talk was given in Savitri bhavan at Auroville, on 18 Novem-
ber 2010, in commemoration of the Mothers passing on 17 November
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1.07 - Incarnate Human Gods, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
of Swami bhaskaranandaji Saraswati, and looked uncommonly like the
late Cardinal Manning, only more ingenuous. His eyes beamed with
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1.07 - Jnana Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
26. OM is the symbol of Brahman. OM is your real name. Meditate on Om with bhava and its meaning. You will attain Self-realisation.
27. I am the All-pervading, Immortal Soul. I am Pure Consciousness. I am Satchidananda Svaroopa. I am witness or Sakshi.These are the formulas for constant meditation and assertion.
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1.07 - Production of the mind-born sons of Brahma, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
The patriarch Dakṣa had by Prasūti twenty-four daughters[11]: hear from me their names: Sraddhā (faith), Lakṣmī (prosperity), Dhriti (steadiness), Tuṣṭi (resignation), Puṣṭi (thriving), Medhā (intelligence), Krīyā (action, devotion), Buddhi (intellect), Lajjā (modesty), Vapu (body), Sānti (expiation), Siddhi (perfection), Kīrtti (fame): these thirteen daughters of Dakṣa, Dharma (righteousness) took to wife. The other eleven bright-eyed and younger daughters of the patriarch were, Khyāti (celebrity), Sati (truth), Sambhūti (fitness), Smriti (memory), Prīti (affection), Kṣamā (patience), Sannati (humility), Anasūyā (charity), Ūrjjā (energy), with Svāhā (offering), and Swadhā (oblation). These maidens were respectively wedded to the Munis, Bhrigu, bhava, Marīci, A
giras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Atri, and Vaśiṣṭha; to Fire (Vahni), and to the Pitris (progenitors)[12]. The progeny of Dharma by the daughters of Dakṣa were as follows: by Sraddhā he had Kāma (desire); by Lakṣmī, Darpa (pride); by Dhriti, Niyama (precept); by Tuṣṭi, Santoṣa (content); by Puṣṭi, Lo bha (cupidity); by Medhā, Sruta (sacred tradition); by Kriyā, Daṇḍa, Naya, and Vinaya (correction, polity, and prudence); by Buddhi, Bodha (understanding); by Lajjā, Vinaya (good behaviour); by Vapu, Vyavasaya (perseverance). Sānti gave birth to Kṣema (prosperity); Siddhi to Sukha (enjoyment); and Kīrtti to Yasas (reputation[13]). These were the sons of Dharma; one of whom, Kāma, had Hersha (joy) by his wife Nandi (delight).
The wife of Adharma[14] (vice) was Hinsā (violence), on whom he begot a son Anrita (falsehood), and a daughter Nikriti (immorality): they intermarried, and had two sons, bhaya (fear) and Naraka (hell); and twins to them, two daughters, Māyā (deceit) and Vedanā (torture), who became their wives. The son of bhaya and Māyā was the destroyer of living creatures, or Mrityu (death); and Dukha (pain) was the offspring of Naraka and Vedanā. The children of Mrityu were Vyādhi (disease), Jarā (decay), Soka (sorrow), Tṛṣṇa (greediness), and Krodha (wrath). These are all called the inflictors of misery, and are characterised as the progeny of Vice (Adharma). They are all without wives, without posterity, without the faculty to procreate; they are the terrific forms of Viṣṇu, and perpetually operate as causes of the destruction of this world. On the contrary, Dakṣa and the other Ṛṣis, the elders of mankind, tend perpetually to influence its renovation: whilst the Manus and their sons, the heroes endowed with mighty power, and treading in the path of truth, as constantly contribute to its preservation.
Maitreya said:-
--
gaja (lust). These are severally derived from different parts of Brahmā's body: and the bhagāvata, adding Kardama (soil or sin) to this enumeration, makes him spring from Brahmā's shadow. The simple statement, that the first Prajāpatis sprang from the mind or will of Brahmā, has not contented the depraved taste of the mystics, and in some of the Purāṇas, as the Bhāgavata, Li
ga, and Vāyu, they also are derived from the body of their progenitor; or, Bhrigu from his skin, Marīci from his mind, Atri from his eyes, A
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[5]: Brahmā, after detaching from himself the property of anger, in the form of Rudra, converted himself into two persons, the first male, or the Manu Svāyambhuva, and the first woman, or Śatarūpā: so in the Vedas; 'So himself was indeed (his) son.' The commencement of production through sexual agency is here described with sufficient distinctness, but the subject has been rendered p. 52 obscure by a more complicated succession of agents, and especially by the introduction of a person of a mythic or mystical character, Virāj. The notion is thus expressed in Manu: "Having divided his own substance, the mighty power Brahmā became half male and half female; and from that female he produced Virāj. Know me to be that person whom the male Virāj produced by himself." I. 32, 33. We have therefore a series of Brahmā, Virāj, and Manu, instead of Brahmā and Manu only: also the generation of progeny by Brahmā, begotten on Satarūpā, instead of her being, as in our text, the wife of Manu. The idea seems to have originated with the Vedas, as Kullūka bhaṭṭa quotes a text; 'Then (or thence) Virāt was born.' The procreation of progeny by Brahmā, however, is at variance with the whole system, which almost invariably refers his creation to the operation of his will: and the expression in Manu, 'he created Virāj in her,' does not necessarily imply sexual intercourse. Virāj also creates, not begets, Manu. And in neither instance does the name of Śatarūpā occur. The commentator on Manu, however, understands the expression asrijat to imply the procreation of Virāj; and the same interpretation is given by the Matsya Purāṇa, in which the incestuous passion of Brahmā for Śatarūpa, his daughter in one sense, his sister in another, is described; and by her he begets Virāj, who there is called, not the progenitor of Manu, but Manu himself. This therefore agrees with our text, as far as it makes Manu the son of Brahmā, though not as to the nature of the connexion. The reading of the Agni and Padma P. is that of the Viṣṇu; and the Bhāgavata agrees with it in one place, stating distinctly that the male half of Brahmā, was Manu, the other half, Śatarūpā: ### Bhāgav. III. 12. 35: and although the production of Virāj is elsewhere described, it is neither as the son of Brahmā, nor the father of Manu. The original and simple idea, therefore, appears to be, the identity of Manu with the male half of Brahmā, and his being thence regarded as his son. The Kūrma P. gives the same account as Manu, and in the same words. The Li
ga P. and Vāyu P. describe the origin of Virāj and Śatarūpā from Brahmā; and they intimate the union of Śatarūpā with Puruṣa or Virāj, the male portion of Brahmā, in the first instance; and in the second, with Manu, who is termed Vairāja, or the son of Virāj. The Brāhma P., the words of which are repeated in the Hari Vaṃśa, introduces a new element of perplexity in a new name, that of Āpava. According to the commentator, this is a name of the Prajāpati Vaśiṣṭha. As, however, he performs the office of Brahmā, he should be regarded as that divinity: but this is not exactly the case, although it has been so rendered by the French translator. Āpava becomes twofold, and in the capacity of his male half begets offspring by the female. Again, it is said Viṣṇu created p. 53 Virāj, and Virāj created the male, which is Vairāja or Manu; who was thus the second interval (Antaram), or stage, in creation. That is, according to the commentator, the first stage was the creation of Āpava, or Vaśiṣṭha, or Virāj, by Viṣṇu, through the agency of Hiranyagar bha or Brahmā; and the next was that of the creation of Manu by Virāj. Śatarūpā appears as first the bride of Āpava, and then as the wife of Manu. This account therefore, although obscurely expressed, appears to be essentially the same with that of Manu; and we have Brahmā, Virāj, Manu, instead of Brahmā and Manu. It seems probable that this difference, and the part assigned to Virāj, has originated in some measure from confounding Brahmā with the male half of his individuality, and considering as two beings that which was but one. If the Puruṣa or Virāj be distinct from Brahmā, what becomes of Brahmā? The entire whole and its two halves cannot coexist; although some of the Paurāṇics and the author of Manu seem to have imagined its possibility, by making Virāj the son of Brahmā. The perplexity, however, is still more ascribable to the personification of that which was only an allegory. The division of Brahmā into two halves designates, as is very evident from the passage in the Vedas given by Mr. Colebrooke, (As. R. VIII. 425,) the distinction of corporeal substance into two sexes; Virāj being all male animals, Śatarūpā all female animals. So the commentator on the Hari Vaṃśa explains the former to denote the horse, the bull, &c.; and the latter, the mare, the cow, and the like. In the Bhāgavata the term Virāj implies, Body, collectively, as the commentator observes; 'As the sun illuminates his own inner sphere, as well as the exterior regions, so soul, shining in body (Virāja), irradiates all without and within.' All therefore that the birth of Virāj was intended to express, was the creation of living body, of creatures of both sexes: and as in consequence man was produced, he might be said to be the son of Virāj, or bodily existence. Again, Śatarūpā, the bride of Brahmā, or of Virāj, or of Manu, is nothing more than beings of varied or manifold forms, from Sata, 'a hundred,' and 'form;' explained by the annotator on the Hari Vaṃśa by Anantarūpā, 'of infinite,' and Vividharūpā, 'of diversified shape;' being, as he states, the same as Māyā, 'illusion,' or the power of multiform metamorphosis. The Matsya P. has a little allegory of its own, on the subject of Brahmā's intercourse with Śatarūpā; for it explains the former to mean the Vedas, and the latter the Savitrī, or holy prayer, which is their chief text; and in their cohabitation there is therefore no evil.
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1.07 - Raja-Yoga in Brief, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
"He who hates none, who is the friend of all, who is merciful to all, who has nothing of his own, who is free from egoism, who is even-minded in pain and pleasure, who is forbearing, who is always satisfied, who works always in Yoga, whose self has become controlled, whose will is firm, whose mind and intellect are given up unto Me, such a one is My beloved bhakta. From whom comes no disturbance, who cannot be disturbed by others, who is free from joy, anger, fear, and anxiety, such a one is My beloved. He who does not depend on anything, who is pure and active, who does not care whether good comes or evil, and never becomes miserable, who has given up all efforts for himself; who is the same in praise or in blame, with a silent, thoughtful mind, blessed with what little comes in his way, homeless, for the whole world is his home, and who is steady in his ideas, such a one is My beloved bhakta." Such alone become Yogis.
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1.07 - THE MASTER AND VIJAY GOSWAMI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Even after attaining samdhi, some retain the 'servant ego' or the 'devotee ego'. The bhakta keeps this 'I-consciousness'. He says, 'O God, Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant; Thou art the Lord and I am Thy devotee.' He feels that way even after the realization of God. His 'I' is not completely effaced. Again, by constantly practising this kind of 'I-consciousness', one ultimately attains God. This is called bhaktiyoga.
"One can attain the Knowledge of Brahman, too, by following the path of bhakti. God is all-powerful. He may give His devotee Brahmajnna also, if He so wills. But the devotee generally doesn't seek the Knowledge of the Absolute. He would rather have the consciousness that God is the Master and he the servant, or that God is the Divine Mother and he the child."
VIJAY: "But those who discriminate according to the Vedanta philosophy also realize Him in the end, don't they?"
Path of bhakti is easy
MASTER: "Yes, one may reach Him by following the path of discrimination too: that is called Jnanayoga. But it is an extremely difficult path. I have told you already of the seven planes of consciousness. On reaching the seventh plane the mind goes into samdhi. If a man acquires the firm knowledge that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory, then his mind merges in samdhi. But in the Kaliyuga the life of a man depends entirely on food. How can he have the consciousness that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory? In the Kaliyuga it is difficult to have the feeling, 'I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the twenty-four cosmic principles; I am beyond pleasure and pain, I am above disease and grief, old age and death.' However you may reason and argue, the feeling that the body is identical with the soul will somehow crop up from an unexpected quarter. You may cut a peepal-tree to the ground and think it is dead to its very root, but the next morning you will find a new sprout shooting up from the dead stump. One cannot get rid of this identification with the body; therefore the path of bhakti is best for the people of the Kaliyuga. It is an easy path.
"And, 'I don't want to become sugar; I want to eat it.' I never feel like saying, 'I am Brahman.' I say, 'Thou art my Lord and I am Thy servant.' It is better to make the mind go up and down between the fifth and sixth planes, like a boat racing between two points. I don't want to go beyond the sixth plane and keep my mind a long time in the seventh. My desire is to sing the name and glories of God. It is very good to look on God as the Master and oneself as His servant. Further, you see, people speak of the waves as belonging to the Ganges; but no one says that the Ganges belongs to the waves. The feeling, 'I am He', is not wholesome. A man who entertains such an idea, while looking on his body as the Self, causes himself great harm. He cannot go forward in spiritual life; he drags himself down. He deceives himself as well as others. He cannot understand his own state of mind.
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"But it isn't any and every kind of bhakti that enables one to realize God. One cannot realize God without prema- bhakti. Another name for prema- bhakti is raga- bhakti. God cannot be realized without love and longing. Unless one has learnt to love God, one cannot realize Him.
"There is another kind of bhakti, known as vaidhi bhakti, according to which one must repeat the name of God a fixed number of times, fast, make pilgrimages, worship God with prescribed offerings, make so many sacrifices, and so forth and so on. By continuing such practices a long time one gradually acquires raga- bhakti. God cannot be realized until one has raga- bhakti. One must love God. In order to realize God one must be completely free from worldliness and direct all of one's mind to Him.
"But some acquire raga- bhakti directly. It is innate in them. They have it from their very childhood. Even at an early age they weep for God. An instance of such bhakti is to be found in Prahlada. Vaidhi bhakti is like moving a fan to make a breeze. One needs the fan to make the breeze. Similarly, one practises japa, austerity, and fasting, in order to acquire love of God. But the fan is set aside when the southern breeze blows of
itself.
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"A man with 'green' bhakti cannot assimilate spiritual talk and instruction; but one with 'ripe' bhakti can. The image that falls on a photographic plate covered with black film5
is retained. On the other hand, thousands of images may be reflected on a bare piece of glass, but not one of them is retained. As the object moves away, the glass becomes the same as it was before. One cannot assimilate spiritual instruction unless one has already developed love of God."
VIJAY: "Is bhakti alone sufficient for the attainment of God, for His vision?"
MASTER: "Yes, one can see God through bhakti alone. But it must be 'ripe' bhakti, prema- bhakti and raga- bhakti. When one has that bhakti, one loves God even as the mother loves the child, the child the mother, or the wife the husband.
"When one has such love and attachment for God, one doesn't feel the attraction of maya to wife, children, relatives, and friends. One retains only compassion for them. To such a man the world appears a strange land, a place where he has merely to perform his duties. It is like a man's having his real home in the country, but coming to Calcutta for work; he has to rent a house in Calcutta for the sake of his duties. When one develops love of God, one completely gets rid of one's attachment to the world and worldly wisdom.
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"Haladhri used to say that God is beyond both Being and Non-being. I told the Mother about it and asked Her, 'Then is the divine form an illusion?' The Divine Mother appeared to me in the form of Rati's mother and said, 'Do thou remain in Bhva' I repeated this to Haladhri. Now and then I forget Her comm and and suffer. Once I broke my teeth because I didn't remain in bhava. So I shall remain in bhava unless I receive a revelation from heaven or have a direct experience to the contrary. I shall follow the path of love. What do you say?"
PRANKRISHNA: "Yes, sir."
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MASTER: "The path of bhakti, or zealous love of God. Weep for God in solitude, with a restless soul, and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Cry to your Mother Syama with a real cry, O mind! And how can She hold Herself from you? "
MARWARI DEVOTEE: "Sir, what is the meaning of the worship of the Personal God? And what is the meaning of God without form or attribute?"
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1.07 - The Psychic Center, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
live or die, I am always. 82 "Old and outworn, he grows young again and again," says the Rig Veda (II.4.5). "It is not born nor dies," says the bhagavad Gita, "nor is it that having been it will not be again. It is unborn, ancient, everlasting; it is not slain with the slaying of the body. As a man casts from him his worn-out garments and takes others that are new, so the embodied being casts off its bodies and joins itself to others that are new. Certain is the death of that which is born and certain is the birth of that which dies."83
What is ordinarily known as reincarnation is not unique to Sri Aurobindo's teaching; all the ancient wisdoms have spoken of it, from the Far East to Egypt to the Neo-Platonists, 84 but Sri Aurobindo gives it a new meaning. From the moment we emerge beyond the narrow momentary vision of a single life cut short by death, two attitudes are possible: either we agree with the exclusive spiritualists that all these lives are but a painful and futile chain from which we had better free ourselves as soon as possible in order to rest in God, in Brahman, or in some Nirvana; or we believe with Sri Aurobindo a belief founded upon experience that the sum of all these lives points to a growth of consciousness that culminates in a fulfillment upon the earth. In other words, there is evolution, an evolution of consciousness behind the evolution of the species, and this spiritual evolution is destined to result in an individual and collective realization upon the earth. One may ask why the traditional spiritualists, enlightened as they are, have not foreseen this earthly realization. First of all, the oversight concerns only the relatively modern spiritualists; it does not apply to the Veda (whose secret Sri Aurobindo rediscovered) and perhaps to other, still misunderstood traditions. In fact, it would be appropriate to say that the spirituality of our modern era is marked by a dimming of 82
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1.080 - Pratyahara - The Return of Energy, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
We have been struggling for days and nights, for months and years and we are getting nothing. How is it possible? The reason is that there is some very strong impediment, like a thick wall standing in front of us, on account of some tamasic or rajasic karma of the past lives. All our time is spent in breaking through this wall. The achievement is something quite different that will come later on. So why should we weep that we have achieved nothing? We have achieved; we have pierced through the wall. It is like bharatpur Fort which the British wanted to break and could not, due to the thickness of the wall. Somehow or other, after tremendous effort, they made a hole and went in. We can imagine what indefatigable effort and what kind of persistence was required in breaking through the fort. Otherwise, one would give up and go back. It was impossible to break in because the wall was too thick fifty feet thick and made of mud. One could not break it by any kind of bullet such was bharatpur Fort. They did not succeed, but they were very persistent. Somehow or other they made a hole and went in, and the fort was captured.
Likewise, the first days effort need not necessarily bring illumination because of the great efforts that are necessary to break through the fort of the veil of ignorance and karma, which is itself sufficient and weighty. Even if we spend three-fourths of our life in this work only, it should not be regarded as a kind of defeat. Often it so happens that the major part of our life is spent only in cleansing and in breaking through this veil. Once this negative work of cleansing and breaking is effected, then the positive achievement will take place in a trice. How much time do we require to see the brilliance of the sun? We have only to remove the cataract veil that is covering our eyes and immediately we see the sun shining. The effort is to remove this veil. Hence, this vashyata, or the mastery over the senses which the sutra speaks of, is gained with very hard effort, and no sadhaka can afford to lose heart in the attempt. It is declared in the scriptures on yoga that the only thing that works, and succeeds, in this noble endeavour is persistence. If we go on persistently doing a thing again and again, whether we succeed or not we will succeed eventually.
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1.081 - The Application of Pratyahara, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Questions of this type all arise because of an improper grounding in a philosophical background, which is the preparatory stage of the practice of yoga. Yoga is a practical implementation of a doctrine of the universe. An outlook of things is at the background of this very technique. This is what is perhaps meant by the oft-repeated teaching of the bhagavadgita that yoga should be preceded by samkhya. Here the words yoga and samkhya do not mean the technical classical jargons. They simply mean the theory and the practice. E tebhihit s
khye buddhir yoge tv im u (B.G. II.39): I have talked to you about samkhya up to this time. Now I shall speak to you about yoga, says bhagavan Sri Krishna. There should be a correct grasp of what is to be done. This is what we may call the samkhya, or the philosophy aspect. And when we actually start doing it, that is the yoga aspect.
In every branch of learning there is the theory aspect and the practical aspect, whether it is in mathematics, or physics, or any other aspect of study. Here it is of a similar nature. Why is it that the mind is to be withdrawn from the object? The answer to this question is in the theoretical aspect which is the philosophy. What is wrong with the mind in its contemplation on things? Why should we not think of an object? Why we should not think of an object cannot be answered now, at this stage, when we have actually taken up this practice. We ought to have understood it much earlier. When we have started walking, it means that we already know why we are walking and where is our destination. We cannot start walking and say, Where am I walking to? Why did we start walking without knowing the destination? Likewise, if our question as to why this is necessary at all is not properly answered within our own self, then immediately there will be repulsion from the mind and it will say, You do not know what you are doing. You are merely troubling me. Then the mind will not agree to this proposal of abstraction.
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No pratyahara can be effective unless all these three aspects are properly analysed and isolated from the nature of the object. Though the mind may not be thinking about the object, there may be feeling towards it; then there is no pratyahara. Not only that the thinking, willing, feeling aspect has also a subconscious element in it, which also is to be probed into before complete mastery is gained. There may be a subtle restlessness at the time of the effecting of this practice. That restlessness may be due to the presence of a subconscious like for that very object from which the mind has been consciously withdrawn, which aspect is pointed out in a verse of the bhagavadgita: rasavarjam rasopy asya para dv nivartate (B.G. II.59). The mind and the senses appear to be withdrawn from the objects of sense in pratyahara, it is true. But how do we know that the mind and the senses have no taste for the object? Hence, pratyahara is not merely a physical isolation or even a conscious disconnection of oneself from the object, but is an emotional detachment that is necessary wherein alone is it possible to have no taste for a thing. The taste may go to the feeling; and as long as the taste is present, there is every possibility of the other aspects rising once again into action. As long as the root is there, there is every chance of the sprout coming up one day or the other.
Complete pratyahara is not practicable unless an aspect of concentration and meditation is combined with it. The positive side should also be brought into the role of the practice, to some extent at least. Just as in medical treatment, together with the particular prescription for the treatment of the illness we also give a constructive tonic so that there may not be a deleterious effect of the weakness of the system on account of an intensive treatment, likewise we have to be very cautious in dealing with the mind that in withdrawing the mind from objects, we are not merely focused on the aspect of withdrawing. We are not only emptying the mind and giving nothing else with which to fill it. There can be a parallel filling of the mind with a positive content, together with the emptying of it. Then the painful aspect of it will be mitigated to a large extent. We are not going to merely starve the mind and give it nothing. That would be a very difficult thing to stomach. Together with this starvation and the emptying or vacating of the mind gradually by detaching it from its usual objects of contact, it can also be positively filled with the content of dharana, whose winds will start blowing, gradually, with their own fragrance and solacing message, together with this deeper preceding stage of pratyahara or withdrawal.
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1.08 - Adhyatma Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
22. All actions culminate in Jnana or wisdom. bhakti also terminates in wisdom. Without bhakti, Jnana is impossible.
23. Knowledge of Atman burns all actions. There is no purifier in this world like Brahma-Jnana.
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1.08a - The Ladder, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
heart and soul to its worship until it blossoms within his own heart. He must look upon this ideal in various ways, as his Master, his Friend, his Parent, his Beloved, or himself as the Priest of his God. This is bhakta Yoga, union by the Path of Devotion.
In the first instance, he gives up all consideration of per- sonal comfort and reward for His sake ; and in the second case, looks upon his chosen God as his dearest friend, feel- ing no constraint in His presence. There is no trace of awe in his love, for he looks upon himself as the child of his
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1.08 - Attendants, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
By the very mould of his nature a bhakta, he came into our midst by his innate right, as I have said. Not a bhakta of the traditional type, but one who has chosen service as the means of self-expression and fundamental realisation. Even the word realisation may not be correct, for self-giving alone is what counts with him. Service is his very food. If any of us did his part of the job, he would get annoyed and exclaim, "You are depriving me of my food; I can remain without food but not without work." That sums up Champaklal and that is exactly the spirit he maintained unflinchingly throughout the long decade that we lived and worked together. The Mother had entire trust in him and putting him in Sri Aurobindo's service along with us, felt quite at ease. Sri Aurobindo also relied on him for all necessary information regarding the Mother and other particulars. Once the Mother came to Sri Aurobindo's room and sat as usual on the couch opposite. We were just watching. Sri Aurobindo signed to Champaklal turning his glance towards the Mother. Champaklal understood and jumped up and put some cushions at the Mother's back. That is their way!
I am firmly convinced that through the ages he has been closely connected with the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, otherwise how could he have been selected as Sri Aurobindo's personal attendant, even as a young man, as soon as he arrived? When he came to see Sri Aurobindo for the first time, he lay prostrate at his feet for an hour, all bathed in happy tears! And when he was leaving, Sri Aurobindo asked one of his older companions to bring him back with him! It is he who first accepted Sri Aurobindo as the Divine Father and called him Father, accepted the Mother as the Divine Mother and began to call her Mother. When he offered to wash the 'Father's' clothes, Sri Aurobindo warned him that he would be mocked at, but that did not deter him. He had gone without food and sleep, had not moved from his place lest the Master should need something or should even have to wait a minute more. To serve Sri Aurobindo was in one way quite easy, for he would never make any demands on us, was content with the main necessities being met and would never express any displeasure if we failed him. This very easiness kept us alert, for one who didn't ask for more than the bare minimum, needed a careful, vigilant watch so that he could be given a little more comfort and ease. Champaklal kept that vigilant eye always. He was more familiar with Sri Aurobindo's nature and temperament by love and long experience and felt his needs on his very pulse. If he saw that Sri Aurobindo needed some side pillows, he got them made; if his footstool was a bit high or low, he adjusted it to the required height. He put a time-piece by his side, for he knew that Sri Aurobindo was in the habit of frequently seeing the time. Such small things that would pass unnoticed because our imaginative perception was perhaps dull, were caught by his sensitive insight and he tried to make "happy and comfortable" the life of the impersonal Brahman. Sri Aurobindo, when he sat on the edge of the bed and had to wait long for the Mother's arrival, seemed to feel drowsy; his body would lean backwards and would then right itself. Still, he would not ask for any assistance but this, not from any sense of egoism. He would put up with any inconvenience but if we offered him some help, he did not refuse it. We simply looked on without knowing how to meet the situation, but Champaklal rose to the occasion: he made a pile of pillows to serve as his back-rest and to prevent them from tumbling down, supported them from behind. To observe economy due to the War, the Mother advised us not to change Sri Aurobindo's bed-sheets too often, but if there was a tiny stain on an otherwise clean white sheet, Champaklal would hesitate to use it, saying, "How can we use anything unclean for the Lord?" His making the bed was a sight worth seeing. I wonder if even an expert housewife would do it so perfectly! The bed-sheet had not the slightest crease anywhere, it shone with a marble smoothness. In everything his aim was to be flawless. Thus it put others who had to work with him into a very difficult corner. He claimed to have acquired this thoroughness under the apprenticeship of the Mother. I sometimes got my share of rebuke from him if I was not tidy or clean enough: "You are a doctor and you still don't wash your hands?" he would say. The fact in his case was that over and above his own training he belonged to a very orthodox Brahmin family and had meticulously observed all the practices ordained by the Shastras and enjoined upon the children by his orthodox priest-father. We were quite modern people having our own ideas of things, so sometimes clash and conflict would arise. Besides, he was in some parts sensitive like a child. We had to be very careful not to upset him and to spare his feelings as much as we could. He could not understand jokes or any round-about manner. He told me that Sri Aurobindo had once spoken about this to the Mother. It was just after he had settled here. His father wrote a letter to Sri Aurobindo saying that Champaklal's marriage had been fixed; he had only to go, undergo the marriage ceremony and then come back. Sri Aurobindo gravely said, "I suppose we have to send back Champaklal." He was much perturbed to hear it. Then Sri Aurobindo added, "He doesn't understand jokes." He knew, however, how to get things done by the Divine, blessings written on a book, for instance, an autograph on a photo. If asked by Champaklal, Sri Aurobindo would not refuse. The Mother too has to accede to the wishes of her bhakta, her "most faithful child".
One day he conceived the idea of getting Sri Aurobindo's footprints; but how was he to do it without troubling him in any way or without informing him in advance? He had a brain-wave. He kept a white sheet of paper and pencil ready. As soon as Sri Aurobindo sat on the chair, he pushed the sheet of paper under his feet and asked, "May I draw your footprint?" Sri Aurobindo not only consented but later wrote "Love and Blessings" on the drawing. Let us not forget, by the way, that Champaklal is an artist. Whenever he saw Sri Aurobindo in what seemed to him statuesque poses his heart would go into rapture and he would call us to share his joy. He would exclaim, "Ah, if a photograph could be taken of this marvellous pose!" The Mother has said that he has "a natural talent already developed to an unusual degree". On one of his birthdays he painted two lotuses, white and red, and offered the pictures to the Mother. She was very pleased and said she would take them to Sri Aurobindo and ask him to write something. He wrote under the painting of the white lotus: Aditi, The Divine Mother. And the Mother wrote on the other: The Avatar. But she forbade Champaklal to show them to anyone, for people would not understand what they meant.
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I shall quote another instance at the risk of being mocked at by the rationalists and being dubbed an apostate, for was I not once a materialist myself? As I have said, Sri Aurobindo used to take a peppermint pastille while he was dictating Savitri and Champaklal's role was to offer it, when wanted. He would wait and wait even if not called at the due hour, he would sometimes hurry his meal so as not to miss the occasion. I thought, "Why should I not get one chance, at least?" But my friend would hear the call even if it was whispered and would run from wherever he might be in the room. Here again, Sri Aurobindo consciously or unconsciously responded to my silent wish by asking one day for the pastille much earlier than the usual time, when Champaklal was not present. He came up and waited for the call. I put on a very innocent face though now and again a mischievous smile tried to betray it. Then at last, very much piqued, Champaklal asked me, "What's the matter? He is not asking for the pastille?" I could not help breaking into laughter. He understood but enquired exactly when he had asked, who had given it, etc., etc. All these incidents were our little pranks played among ourselves and between us and the Master. I shall not protest if anyone calls me too credulous and finds these as nothing but sentimental outpourings of bhaktas. These instances do illustrate why I call Champaklal a real bhakta and have looked upon his service as having the true spirit. No wonder that the Lord, during his last hours, amply recompensed him by repeatedly embracing him, to our great bewildered delight.
Some critics might find this a very rosy picture of Champaklal, drawn, as one would expect, by a colleague who would keep the thorns out of their sight. Thorns he has, who has not? In 1935, when I knew very little of him, I wrote to Sri Aurobindo, "Champaklal came to the Dispensary and had an outburst with me. I am sure he will tell the Mother about it." He replied, "Champaklal does not usually tell Mother about these things outbursts of that kind are too common with him. And when heat meets heat It is almost midsummer now." Champaklal is himself aware of his defects and repents them very much. Sometimes on the verge of despair, he confesses that complete change of nature is impossible except by the Divine Grace. More than once after losing his temper with me, not always without cause, he regretted his explosion and said, "I hope you won't mind; you know my nature," and became his old sweet self. He has a streak of Bholanath in him, and says that he must have been an avadht[2] in his previous life. He has prayed again and again to the Mother for the removal of this weakness in his nature. He is outspoken, very straightforward the Mother has vouched for it he cannot bear any kind of insincerity. He cannot make or even see any compromise made with falsehood; his nature is alien to the ways of the world. Much of his apparent rudeness and ill temper stems from this uncompromising spirit. This, of course, does not save him from misjudging people at times, but when shown his fault, he never tries to cover it up. I believe that there should be someone who is upright and unsparing, and as firm as steel when all around there is such a mixture of motives. He serves as the gate-keeper of Heaven. Parodying Sri Aurobindo's verse, "None can reach Heaven who has not passed through Hell," I would mutter, "None can go to the Mother who has not passed through Champaklal!"
--
Such appalling mist could only be dissolved by counterbalancing incidents like the one of our old doctor Becharlal, a true bhakta by nature. Sri Aurobindo remarked that his bhakti was genuine. How many times he was on the point of shedding tears on seeing his " bhagawan suffer"! Apart from his age, his emotional nature rendered him incapable of doing anything but light work and we gave him only such work. Neither would he ask for more, since he knew himself quite well. If he could just breathe the nearness of the Lord, that was all he wanted. That was his lifelong aspiration, it appeared, and it was fulfilled. He was called Dadaji by us and given his due respect. During the early days of the accident, in the tranquil atmosphere of the room, we would hear some sudden sobbing trying in vain to control itself. It was our doctor who had been moved to sorrow by the "painful condition" of his beloved Lord! Or sometimes there were tears of spiritual fervour.
When after his bath Sri Aurobindo lay down for a little rest, our doctor would squat behind or beside him and gaze on the reclining god who was in serene repose with both hands locked above the head. Becharlal said that at those moments especially, Sri Aurobindo appeared to him just like Lord Shiva and he felt a great impulse to embrace him. Stretched at full length on the bed, his well-formed body almost filling it without any covering on the upper part, the large full head and the radiant face, caring nothing for earthly vanities, yet the Lord of the world, captured not only Dr. Becharlal's heart but ours as well. Dr. Becharlal would be full of peace and rapture in his presence but could not stay long because of his old-age infirmities. Dr. Manilal remarked to Sri Aurobindo that among all of us Dr. Becharlal profited most from his association with Sri Aurobindo.
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Dr. Satyendra is an unassuming and nice person, did his part of the job in a quiet and steady way. He was cleaning, for a time, the windows and furniture in Sri Aurobindo's room. Ready to serve but never pushing and not over eager, he kept a closeness and happy relation with all. He used to express very often that he was more of a retiring nature and more intent on personal realisation through bhakti. Karmayoga did not suit his temperament very well. Whatever might be his particular bent, we saw that he did his own work like a karmayogi, in a genuine spirit of service to the Master whom he always addressed as Sir. His talks with Sri Aurobindo showed his sense of humour, his insight into philosophy, politics and mysticism. Sri Aurobindo seemed to like his company, his quiet devotion, in spite of his constantly grumbling against the integral Yoga and the Supermind. While cleaning the Master's nails as he lay in bed, he would start his old unvarying tale about the necessity of the personal touch, his close contact with his former guru. Sri Aurobindo would listen quietly to his nostalgic monologue. There must be some expression of love, was his constant burden, to which Sri Aurobindo once replied that unity of consciousness is the root and love is its fine flower. A shrewd observer of human and divine nature, it was he who made the pertinent remark that in this Yoga only two persons have achieved complete surrender: the Mother to Sri Aurobindo and Sri Aurobindo to the Mother! As an example he related this story: Sri Aurobindo was lying in bed one day, and the ceiling-fan was revolving at full speed. Satyendra felt that he wanted something, so he approached the Master and asked, "Are you looking for something, Sir?" "Oh, no.... Is Nirod there?" "No, Sir. But can I do anything?" he asked. "I was wondering if the speed of the fan could be reduced," he replied. "I can do it, Sir." "Oh, can you?" he asked. Sri Aurobindo enquired about me because I was given charge of the fan by the Mother, and he would not violate the rule. As for the reduction of the speed, that too was in deference to the wishes of the Mother, for once on entering Sri Aurobindo's room, she saw the fan turning at full speed and remarked, "Oh, what a storm!" To give another instance: when we wanted to move the table-fan a bit nearer him, he said, "No, Mother has kept it there." This is how we learnt submission and obedience not only in big matters, but even in small trivialities.
The Mother told Satyendra recently on his birthday that Sri Aurobindo had come to her on the eve of his interview with her and said that he had taken good care of Sri Aurobindo's body. What a touching recognition from Sri Aurobindo! Even after leaving the body, the Guru remembers a kind act, some help rendered to him by his disciple! What a Divine Magnanimity! We know also that all those who had served him during his accident period have had their reward in some form or other, in the material and spiritual life.
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1.08 - Origin of Rudra: his becoming eight Rudras, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
In the beginning of the Kalpa, as Brahmā purposed to create a son, who should be like himself, a youth of a purple complexion[2] appeared, crying with a low cry, and running about[3]. Brahmā, when he beheld him thus afflicted, said to him, "Why dost thou weep?" "Give me a name," replied the boy. "Rudra be thy name," rejoined the great father of all creatures: "be composed; desist from tears." But, thus addressed, the boy still wept seven times, and Brahmā therefore gave to him seven other denominations; and to these eight persons regions and wives and posterity belong. The eight manifestations, then, are named Rudra, bhava, Śarva, Iśāna, Paśupati, Bhīma, Ugra, and Mahādeva, which were given to them by their great progenitor. He also assigned to them their respective stations, the sun, water, earth, air, fire, ether, the ministrant Brahman, and the moon; for these are their several forms[4]. The wives of the sun and the other manifestations, termed Rudra and the rest, were respectively, Suvercalā, Uṣā, Vikesī, Sivā, Svāhā, Diśā, Dīkṣā, and Rohinī. Now hear an account of their progeny, by whose successive generations this world has been peopled. Their sons, then, were severally, Sanaiścara (Saturn), Śukra (Venus), the fiery-bodied Mars, Manojava (Hanumān), Skanda, Svarga, Santāna, and Budha (Mercury).
It was the Rudra of this description that married Satī, who abandoned her corporeal existence in consequence of the displeasure of Dakṣa[5]. She afterwards was the daughter of Himavān (the snowy mountains) by Menā; and in that character, as the only Umā, the mighty bhava again married her[6]. The divinities Dhātā and Vidhātā were born to Bhrigu by Khyāti, as was a daughter, Śrī, the wife of Nārāyaṇa, the god of gods[7].
Maitreya said:-
--
ga, and Vāyu agree with our text in the nomenclature of the Rudras, and their types, their wives, and progeny. The types are those which are enumerated in the Nāndī, p. 59 or opening benedictory verse, of Sakuntalā; and the passage of the Viṣṇu P. was found by Mons. Chezy on the envelope of his copy. He has justly corrected Sir Wm. Jones's version of the term ### 'the sacrifice is performed with solemnity;' as the word means, 'Brahmane officiant,' 'the Brāhmaṇ who is qualified by initiation (Dīkṣā) to conduct the rite.' These are considered as the bodies, or visible forms, of those modifications of Rudra which are variously named, and which, being praised in them, severally abstain from harming them: ### Vāyu P. The Bhāgavata, III. 12, has a different scheme, as usual; but it confounds the notion of the eleven Rudras, to whom the text subsequently adverts, with that of the eight here specified. These eleven it terms Manyu, Manu, Mahīnasa, Mahān, Siva, Ritadhwaja, Ugraretas, bhava, Kāla, Vāmadeva, and Dhritavrata: their wives are, Dhī, Dhriti, Rasalomā, Niyut, Sarpī, Ilā, Ambikā, Irāvatī, Swadhā, Dīkṣā, Rudrānī: and their places are, the heart, senses, breath, ether, air, fire, water, earth, sun, moon, and tapas, or ascetic devotion. The same allegory or mystification characterises both accounts.
[5]: See the story of Dakṣa's sacrifice at the end of the chapter.
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"Then from the gloom emerged fearful and numerous forms, shouting the cry of battle; who instantly broke or overturned the sacrificial columns, trampled upon the altars, and danced amidst the oblations. Running wildly hither and thither, with the speed of wind, they tossed about the implements and vessels of sacrifice, which looked like stars precipitated from the heavens. The piles of food and beverage for the gods, which had been heaped up like mountains; the rivers of milk; the banks of curds and butter; the sands of honey and butter-milk and sugar; the mounds of condiments and spices of every flavour; the undulating knolls of flesh and other viands; the celestial liquors, pastes, and confections, which had been prepared; these the spirits of wrath devoured or defiled or scattered abroad. Then falling upon the host of the gods, these vast and resistless Rudras beat or terrified them, mocked and insulted the nymphs and goddesses, and quickly put an end to the rite, although defended by all the gods; being the ministers of Rudra's wrath, and similar to himself[6]. Some then made a hideous clamour, whilst others fearfully shouted, when Yajña was decapitated. For the divine Yajña, the lord of sacrifice, then began to fly up to heaven, in the shape of a deer; and Vīra bhadra, of immeasurable spirit, apprehending his power, cut off his vast head, after he had mounted into the sky[7]. Dakṣa the patriarch, his sacrifice being destroyed, overcome with terror, and utterly broken in spirit, fell then upon the ground, where his head was spurned by the feet of the cruel Vīra bhadra[8]. The thirty scores of sacred divinities were all presently bound, with a band of fire, by their lion-like foe; and they all then addressed him, crying, 'Oh Rudra, have mercy upon thy servants: oh lord, dismiss thine anger.' Thus spake Brahmā and the other gods, and the patriarch Dakṣa; and raising their hands, they said, 'Declare, mighty being, who thou art.' Vīra bhadra said, 'I am not a god, nor an Āditya; nor am I come hither for enjoyment, nor curious to behold the chiefs of the divinities: know that I am come to destroy the sacrifice of Dakṣa, and that I am called Vīra bhadra, the issue of the wrath of Rudra. bhadrakālī also, who has sprung from the anger of Devī, is sent here by the god of gods to destroy this rite. Take refuge, king of kings, with him who is the lord of Umā; for better is the anger of Rudra than the blessings of other gods.'
"Having heard the words of Vīra bhadra, the righteous Dakṣa propitiated the mighty god, the holder of the trident, Maheśvara. The hearth of sacrifice, deserted by the Brahmans, had been consumed; Yajña had been metamorphosed to an antelope; the fires of Rudra's wrath had been kindled; the attendants, wounded by the tridents of the servants of the god, were groaning with pain; the pieces of the uprooted sacrificial posts were scattered here and there; and the fragments of the meat-offerings were carried off by flights of hungry vultures, and herds of howling jackals. Suppressing his vital airs, and taking up a posture of meditation, the many-sighted victor of his foes, Dakṣa fixed his eyes every where upon his thoughts. Then the god of gods appeared from the altar, resplendent as a thousand suns, and smiled upon him, and said, 'Dakṣa, thy sacrifice has been destroyed through sacred knowledge: I am well pleased with thee:' and then he smiled again, and said, 'What shall I do for thee; declare, together with the preceptor of the gods.'
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kara Ācārya, and since. There is no discussion in the Bhāgavata, but Rudra is described as present at a former assembly, when his father-in-law censured him before the guests, and in consequence he departed in a rage. His follower Nandī curses the company, and Bhrigu retorts in language descriptive of the Vāmācāris, or left hand worshippers of Śiva. "May all those," he says, "who adopt the worship of bhava (Śiva), all those who follow the practices of his worshippers, become heretics, and oppugners of holy doctrines; may they neglect the observances of purification; may they be of infirm intellects, wearing clotted hair, and ornamenting themselves with ashes and bones; and may they enter the Śaiva initiation, in which spirituous liquor is the libation."
[4]: This simple account of Sati's share in the transaction is considerably modified in p. 64 other accounts. In the Kūrma, the quarrel begins with Dakṣa the patriarch's being, as he thinks, treated by his son-in-law with less respect than is his due. Upon his daughter Satī's subsequently visiting him, he abuses her husband, and turns her out of his house. She in spite destroys herself. Śiva, hearing of this, comes to Dakṣa, and curses him to be born as a Kṣetriya, the son of the Pracetasas, and to beget a son on his own daughter. It is in this subsequent birth that the sacrifice occurs. The Li
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ga, Kūrma, and Bhāgavata Purāṇas. Indra is knocked down and trampled on; Yama has his staff broken; Sarasvatī and the Mātris have their noses cut off; Mitra or bhaga has his eyes pulled out; Puṣā has his teeth knocked down his throat; Candra is pummelled; Vahni's hands are cut off; Bhrigu loses his beard; the Brahmans are pelted with stones; the Prajāpatis are beaten; and the gods and demigods are run through with swords or stuck with arrows.
[7]: This is also mentioned in the Li
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1.08 - RELIGION AND TEMPERAMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
In Hindu thought the outlines of this completer and more adequate classification are clearly indicated. The ways leading to the delivering union with God are not two, but three the way of works, the way of knowledge and the way of devotion. In the bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna instructs Arjuna in all three pathsliberation through action without attachment; liberation through knowledge of the Self and the Absolute Ground of all being with which it is identical; and liberation through intense devotion to the personal God or the divine incarnation.
Do without attachment the work you have to do; for a man who does his work without attachment attains the Supreme Goal verily. By action alone men like Janaka attained perfection.
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In the light of these descriptions we can understand more clearly the bhagavad Gitas classification of paths to salvation. The path of devotion is the path naturally followed by the person in whom the viscerotonic component is high. His inborn tendency to externalize the emotions he spontaneously feels in regard to persons can be disciplined and canalized, so that a merely animal gregariousness and a merely human kindliness become transformed into charitydevotion to the personal God and universal good will and compassion towards all sentient beings.
The path of works is for those whose extraversion is of the somatotonic kind, those who in all circumstances feel the need to do something. In the unregenerate somatotonic this craving for action is always associated with aggressiveness, self-assertion and the lust for power. For the born Kshatriya, or warrior-ruler, the task, as Krishna explains to Arjuna, is to get rid of those fatal accompaniments to the love of action and to work without regard to the fruits of work, in a state of complete non-attachment to self. Which is, of course, like everything else, a good deal easier said than done.
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The practical consequences of this doctrine are clear enough. The lower forms of religion, whether emotional, active or intellectual, are never to be accepted as final. True, each of them comes naturally to persons of a certain kind of constitution and temperament; but the dharma or duty of any given individual is not to remain complacently fixed in the imperfect religion that happens to suit him; it is rather to transcend it, not by impossibly denying the modes of thought, behaviour and feeling that are natural to him, but by making use of them, so that by means of nature he may pass beyond nature. Thus the introvert uses discrimination (in the Indian phrase), and so learns to distinguish the mental activities of the ego from the principial consciousness of the Self, which is akin to, or identical with, the divine Ground. The emotional extravert learns to hate his father and mother (in other words to give up his selfish attachment to the pleasures of indiscriminately loving and being loved), concentrates his devotion on the personal or incarnate aspect of God, and comes at last to love the Absolute Godhead by an act, no longer of feeling, but of will illuminated by knowledge. And finally there is that other kind of extravert, whose concern is not with the pleasures of giving or receiving affection, but with the satisfaction of his lust for power over things, events and persons. Using his own nature to transcend his own nature, he must follow the path laid down in the bhagavad Gita for the bewildered Arjuna the path of work without attachment to the fruits of work, the path of what St. Franois de Sales calls holy indifference, the path that leads through the forgetting of self to the discovery of the Self.
In the course of history it has often happened that one or other of the imperfect religions has been taken too seriously and regarded as good and true in itself, instead of as a means to the ultimate end of all religion. The effects of such mistakes are often disastrous. For example, many Protestant sects have insisted on the necessity, or at least the extreme desirability, of a violent conversion. But violent conversion, as Sheldon has pointed out, is a phenomenon confined almost exclusively to persons with a high degree of somatotonia. These persons are so intensely extraverted as to be quite unaware of what is happening in the lower levels of their minds. If for any reason their attention comes to be turned inwards, the resulting self-knowledge, because of its novelty and strangeness, presents itself with the force and quality of a revelation and their metanoia, or change of mind, is sudden and thrilling. This change may be to religion, or it may be to something else for example, to psycho-analysis. To insist upon the necessity of violent conversion as the only means to salvation is about as sensible as it would be to insist upon the necessity of having a large face, heavy bones and powerful muscles. To those naturally subject to this kind of emotional upheaval, the doctrine that makes salvation dependent on conversion gives a complacency that is quite fatal to spiritual growth, while those who are incapable of it are filled with a no less fatal despair. Other examples of inadequate theologies based upon psychological ignorance could easily be cited. One remembers, for instance, the sad case of Calvin, the cerebrotonic who took his own intellectual constructions so seriously that he lost all sense of reality, both human and spiritual. And then there is our liberal Protestantism, that predominantly viscerotonic heresy, which seems to have forgotten the very existence of the Father, Spirit and Logos and equates Christianity with an emotional attachment to Christs humanity or, (to use the currently popular phrase) the personality of Jesus, worshipped idolatrously as though there were no other God. Even within all-comprehensive Catholicism we constantly hear complaints of the ignorant and self-centred directors, who impose upon the souls under their charge a religious dharma wholly unsuited to their naturewith results which writers such as St. John of the Cross describe as wholly pernicious. We see, then, that it is natural for us to think of God as possessed of the qualities which our temperament tends to make us perceive in Him; but unless nature finds a way of transcending itself by means of itself, we are lost. In the last analysis Philo is quite right in saying that those who do not conceive God purely and simply as the One injure, not God of course, but themselves and, along with themselves, their fellows.
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1.08 - Sri Aurobindos Descent into Death, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
1 This talk was given in Savitri bhavan on 4 December 2010, in com-
memoration of the 60th anniversary of Sri Aurobindos passing.
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1.08 - The Gods of the Veda - The Secret of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
With the acceptance of these modern opinions Hinduism ought by this time to have been as dead among educated men as the religion of the Greeks & Romans. It should at best have become a religio Pagana, a superstition of ignorant villagers. Itis, on the contrary, stronger & more alive, fecund & creative than it had been for the previous three centuries. To a certain extent this unexpected result may be traced to the high opinion in which even European opinion has been compelled to hold the Vedanta philosophy, the bhagavat Gita and some of the speculationsas the Europeans think themor, as we hold, the revealed truths of the Upanishads. But although intellectually we are accustomed in obedience to Western criticism to base ourselves on the Upanishads & Gita and put aside Purana and Veda as mere mythology & mere ritual, yet in practice we live by the religion of the Puranas & Tantras even more profoundly & intimately than we live by & realise the truths of the Upanishads. In heart & soul we still worship Krishna and Kali and believe in the truth of their existence. Nevertheless this divorce between the heart & the intellect, this illicit compromise between faith & reason cannot be enduring. If Purana & Veda cannot be rehabilitated, it is yet possible that our religion driven out of the soul into the intellect may wither away into the dry intellectuality of European philosophy or the dead formality & lifeless clarity of European Theism. It behoves us therefore to test our faith by a careful examination into the meaning of Purana & Veda and into the foundation of that truth which our intellect seeks to deny [but] our living spiritual experience continues to find in their conceptions. We must discover why it is that while our intellects accept only the truth of Vedanta, our spiritual experiences confirm equally or even more powerfully the truth of Purana. A revival of Hindu intellectual faith in the totality of the spiritual aspects of our religion, whether Vedic, Vedantic, Tantric or Puranic, I believe to be an inevitable movement of the near future.
There has already been, indeed, a local movement towards the rehabilitation of the Veda. Swami Dayananda, the founder of the Arya Samaj, preached a monotheistic religion founded on a new interpretation of the sacred hymns. But this important attempt, successful & vigorous in the Panjab, is not likely to comm and acceptance among the more subtle races of the south & east. It was based like the European rendering on a system of philology,the Nirukta of Yaska used by the scholastic ingenuity & robust faith of Dayananda to justify conclusions far-reaching & even extravagant, to which it is difficult to assent unless we are offered stronger foundations.Moreover, by rejecting the authority of all later Scriptures and scouting even the Upanishads because they transcend the severity of his monotheistic teaching, Dayananda cut asunder the unity of Hindu religion even more fatally than the Europeans & by the slenderness of vision & the poverty of spiritual contents, the excessive simplicity of doctrine farther weakened the authority of this version for the Indian intellect. He created a sect & a rendering, but failed to rehabilitate to the educated mind in India the authority of the Vedas. Nevertheless, he put his finger on the real clue, the true principle by which Veda can yet be made to render up its long-guarded secret. A Nirukta, based on a wider knowledge of the Aryan tongues than Dayananda possessed, more scientific than the conjectural philology of the Europeans, is the first condition of this great recovery. The second is a sympathy & flexibility of intelligence capable of accepting passively & moulding itself to the mentality of the men of this remote epoch.
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1.08 - THE MASTERS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"For the Kli Yuga the path of bhakti is especially good. One can realize God through bhakti too. As long as one is conscious of the body, one is also conscious of objects.
Form, taste, smell, sound, and touch-these are the objects. It is extremely difficult to get rid of the consciousness of objects. And one cannot realize 'I am He' as long as one is aware of objects.
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MASTER (to Ram and the other devotees): "Devotees like Rakhal, Narendra, and bhavanath may be called Nityasiddha. Their spiritual consciousness has been awake since their very birth. They assume human bodies only to impart spiritual illumination to others.
"There is another class of devotees, known as K ripasiddha, that is to say, those on whom the grace of God descends all of a sudden and who at once attain His vision and Knowledge. Such people may be likened to a room that has been dark a thousand years, which, when a lamp is brought into it, becomes light immediately, not little by little.
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MASTER: "Through that kind of love. But one must force one's demand on God. One should be able to say: 'O God, wilt Thou not reveal Thyself to me? I will cut my throat with a knife.' This is the tamas of bhakti."
DEVOTEE: "Can one see God?"
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M. arrived early in the morning and found the Master talking smilingly to bhavanath, Rakhal, and Kalikrishna. M. prostrated himself before him.
MASTER (to M.): "I am glad you have come.
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As Sri Ramakrishna listened to the song with folded hands, his mind soared to a far-off realm. He remained absorbed in meditation a long time. After a while Kalikrishna whispered something to bhavanath. Then he bowed before the Master and rose. Sri Ramakrishna was surprised. He asked, "Where are you going?"
bhaVANATH: "He is going away on a little business."
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After finishing the worship in his own way, he asked bhavanath to carry the green coconut that had been offered to the Mother. He also visited the images of Radha and Krishna in the Vishnu temple.
When the Master returned to his room, he found that other devotees had arrived, among them Ram, Nityagopal, and Kedr. They all saluted the Master, who greeted them cordially.
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MASTER (to Kedr): "Oh, don't you understand? He upholds the doctrine of the rishis of olden times. They once said to Rama: 'O Rama, we know You only as the son of Dasaratha. Let sages like bharadvaja worship You as God Incarnate. We want to realize Brahman, the Indivisible Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.' At these words Rama smiled and went away."
KEDR: "Those rishis could not recognize Rama as an Incarnation of God. They must have been fools,"
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"The rishis followed the path of jnna. Therefore they sought to realize Brahman, the Indivisible Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. But those who follow the path of devotion seek an Incarnation of God, to enjoy the sweetness of bhakti. The darkness of the mind disappears when God is realized. In the Purana it is said that it was as if a hundred suns were shining when Rama entered the court. Why, then, weren't the courtiers burnt up? It was because the brilliance of Rama was not like that of a material object. As the lotus blooms when the sun rises, so the lotus of the heart of the people assembled in the court burst into blossom."
As the Master uttered these words, standing before the devotees, he suddenly fell into an ecstatic mood. His mind was withdrawn from external objects. No sooner did he say, "the lotus of the heart burst into blossom", than he went into deep samdhi. He stood motionless, his countenance beaming and his lips parted in a smile.
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Only then will his description of the Queen be correct. Sages like bharadvaja adored Rama and said: 'O Rama, You are nothing but the Indivisible Satchidananda. You have appeared before us as a human being, but You look like a man because You have shrouded Yourself with Your own maya.' These rishis were great devotees of Rama: and had supreme love for God."
Master's different spiritual moods
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After his meal Sri Ramakrishna rested a little on the small couch. Inside and outside his room crowded the devotees, among them Kedr, Suresh, Ram, Manomohan, Girindra, Rakhal, bhavanath, and M. Rakhal's father was also present.
Efficacy of earnest japa
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Likewise, through the cooling influence of bhakti, one sees forms of God in the Ocean of the Absolute. These forms are meant for the bhaktas, the lovers of God. But when the Sun of Knowledge rises, the ice melts; it becomes the same water it was before. Water above and water below, everywhere nothing but water. Therefore a prayer in the bhagavata says: 'O Lord, Thou hast form, and Thou art also formless. Thou walkest before us, O Lord, in the shape of a man; again, Thou hast been described in the Vedas as beyond words and thought.'
"But you may say that for certain devotees God assumes eternal forms. There are places in the ocean where the ice doesn't melt at all. It assumes the form of quartz."
KEDR: "It is said in the bhagavata that Vysa asked God's forgiveness for his three transgressions. He said: 'O Lord, Thou art formless, but I have thought of Thee in my meditation as endowed with form; Thou art beyond speech, but I have sung Thee hymns; Thou art the All-pervading Spirit, but I have made pilgrimages to sacred places.
Be gracious, O Lord, and forgive these three transgressions of mine.'"
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The devotees were ready to return home. One by one they saluted the Master. At the sight of bhavanath Sri Ramakrishna said: "Don't go away today. The very sight of you inspires me." bhavanath had not yet entered into worldly life. A youth of twenty, he had a fair complexion and handsome features. He shed tears of joy on hearing the name of God. The Master looked on him as the embodiment of Narayana.
Thursday, March 29, 1883
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1.08 - Worship of Substitutes and Images, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
The next points to be considered are the worship of Pratikas or of things more or less satisfactory as substitutes for God, and the worship of Pratims or images. What is the worship of God through a Pratika? It is Joining the mind with devotion to that which is not Brahman, taking it to be Brahman" says bhagavn Rmnuja. "Worship the mind as Brahman this is internal; and the ksha as Brahman, this is with regard to the Devas", says Shankara. The mind is an internal Pratika, the Akasha is an external one, and both have to be worshipped as substitutes of God. He continues, "Similarly 'the Sun is Brahman, this is the command', 'He who worships Name as Brahman' in all such passages the doubt arises as to the worship of Pratikas." The word Pratika means going towards; and worshipping a Pratika is worshipping something as a substitute which is, in some one or more respects, like Brahman more and more, but is not Brahman. Along with the Pratikas mentioned in the Shrutis there are various others to be found in the Purnas and the Tantras. In this kind of Pratika-worship may be included all the various forms of Pitri-worship and Deva-worship.
Now worshipping Ishvara and Him alone is bhakti; the worship of anything else Deva, or Pitri, or any other being cannot be bhakti. The various kinds of worship of the various Devas are all to be included in ritualistic Karma, which gives to the worshipper only a particular result in the form of some celestial enjoyment, but can neither give rise to bhakti nor lead to Mukti. One thing, therefore, has to be carefully borne in mind. If, as it may happen in some cases, the highly philosophic ideal, the supreme Brahman, is dragged down by Pratika-worship to the level of the Pratika, and the Pratika itself is taken to be the Atman of the worshipper or his Antarymin (Inner Ruler), the worshipper gets entirely misled, as no Pratika can really be the Atman of the worshipper.
But where Brahman Himself is the object of worship, and the Pratika stands only as a substitute or a suggestion thereof, that is to say, where, through the Pratika the omnipresent Brahman is worshipped the Pratika itself being idealised into the cause of all, Brahman the worship is positively beneficial; nay, it is absolutely necessary for all mankind until they have all got beyond the primary or preparatory state of the mind in regard to worship. When, therefore, any gods or other beings are worshipped in and for themselves, such worship is only a ritualistic Karma; and as a Vidy (science) it gives us only the fruit belonging to that particular Vidya; but when the Devas or any other beings are looked upon as Brahman and worshipped, the result obtained is the same as by the worshipping of Ishvara. This explains how, in many cases, both in the Shrutis and the Smritis, a god, or a sage, or some other extraordinary being is taken up and lifted, as it were, out of his own nature and idealised into Brahman, and is then worshipped. Says the Advaitin, "Is not everything Brahman when the name and the form have been removed from it?" "Is not He, the Lord, the innermost Self of every one?" says the Vishishtdvaitin.
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The same ideas apply to the worship of the Pratimas as to that of the Pratikas; that is to say, if the image stands for a god or a saint, the worship is not the result of bhakti, and does not lead lo liberation; but if it stands for the one God, the worship thereof will bring both bhakti and Mukti. Of the principal religions of the world we see Vedantism, Buddhism, and certain forms of Christianity freely using images; only two religions, Mohammedanism and Protestantism, refuse such help. Yet the Mohammedans use the grave of their saints and martyrs almost in the place of images; and the Protestants, in rejecting all concrete helps to religion, are drifting away every year farther and farther from spirituality till at present there is scarcely any difference between the advanced Protestants and the followers of August Comte, or agnostics who preach ethics alone. Again, in Christianity and Mohammedanism whatever exists of image worship is made to fall under that category in which the Pratika or the Pratima is worshipped in itself, but not as a "help to the vision" (Drishtisaukaryam) of God; therefore it is at best only of the nature of ritualistic Karmas and cannot produce either bhakti or Mukti. In this form of image-worship, the allegiance of the soul is given to other things than Ishvara, and, therefore, such use of images, or graves, or temples, or tombs, is real idolatry; it is in itself neither sinful nor wicked it is a rite a Karma, and worshippers must and will get the fruit thereof.
next chapter: 1.09 - The Chosen Ideal
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1.096 - Powers that Accrue in the Practice, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
We, as little beginners in the practice of yoga, need not go into these miracles of the magnificent achievements of the great masters. We have to find out how they became masters; that is what is more important. How did Suka become Suka? What was the secret behind it? What was the power of Vasishtha? He could simply stun all the celestial weapons of Visvamitra by a mere wooden stick that he had in front of him. Even the brahmastra would not work before that yogadanda. What is that secret? From where did he get that power? And bharadvaja simply snapped his fingers and celestials dropped from the skies with golden plates of delicacies and served the millions and millions of soldiers of bharata, who was in the forest in search of Rama. Merely a snap of the fingers would do, and celestials start dropping from the skies. From where is all this possible?
These are very interesting things to hear, of course, though it is very difficult to understand how it is possible. But if we know the science behind it, we can know the rationality behind it. And what is possible for one, what has been possible for one, should be possible for others, also, if the proper technique of meditation is practised.
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1.097 - Sublimation of Object-Consciousness, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Patanjali mentions this to us once again, in the Vibhuti Pada, for the purpose of acquisition of the knowledge of the purusha. Sattva purua anyat khytimtrasya sarvabhva adhihttva sarvajttva ca (III.50). When there is an acquisition of this understanding and an establishment of oneself in this status of meditation, some extraordinary results follow, and they are mentioned as sarva bhava adhis thatritva and sarva jnatritva. One becomes the substratum of everything as a result of this meditation that is sarva bhava adhis thatritva. As the substratum of all things, there is no need for this consciousness to move towards objects, because it is the substratum of even the object. As the result of this, again, there is sarva jnatritva knowledge of everything. The substance of everything is also endowed with the knowledge of everything. It follows, because everything is a modification of the substance. One who has become the substance itself, as the substratum of all things, naturally gets endowed with this knowledge. This knowledge is called taraka that which takes one across the ocean of sorrow.
Traka sarvaviaya sarvathviaya akrama ca iti vivekajam jnam (III.55). This taraka knowledge is of such a nature that its object is everything, as different from the mental knowledge which is provided to us now, at present, which has only certain objects as its contents, and not all objects. A certain set of objects becomes the content of mental consciousness, empirically. But here, there is sarva visayatva anything that is existent is a constant and perpetual content of this consciousness. It is not merely sarva visaya, but is also sarvatha visaya it is aware of everything in every condition, not only in one condition. For example, we are aware of objects in one condition only, not in all conditions. In the earlier sutras we have been told that every object undergoes various conditions the parinamas mentioned. And we cannot be aware of all the parinamas, or all the transformations of the past, present and future at one stroke, because of the limited character of the mind in its capacity to know things. Only the present is known. The past is not known. The future is not known.
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Thus, there is a very scientific methodology provided to us in these sutras, which have to be studied gradually, stage by stage, in their successive intensity and applicability. Many authors think that the sutras of Patanjali in respect of yoga are concluded with the Vibhuti Pada because in it he mentions that kaivalya is attained. What else is there to say, afterwards? Some people are of the opinion that there are only three sections of Patanjali, not four sections, but there are others who think that there should be four sections, not three, because each section is called a pada Samadhi Pada, Sadhana Pada, Vibhuti Pada and Kaivalya Pada. A pada is a quarter, and we cannot have three quarters; quarters are always four. So, inasmuch as the word pada is used in respect of each section, it is the opinion of many that four sections must be there, not three. And the fourth section has a meaning of its own. Though it is not directly connected with practice, it furnishes certain details. Just as there are people who think that the bhagavadgita ends with the eleventh chapter and the successive chapters are additions, as a kind of commentary, there are others who think that they are not simply additions; they have an organic connection with what has preceded.
So is the case with these sutras. The Kaivalya Pada is a metaphysical disquisition of Patanjali, where we find his philosophical peculiarities as distinct from other schools of thought, which of course have great relevance to the practice which he has described in the earlier sutras.
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1.098 - The Transformation from Human to Divine, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
When one steps over the ordinary human level and places ones feet on the next higher level, that condition is called prathama kalpita. It is a peculiar term which implies an experience of a first form of enlightenment. The first enlightenment that comes through yoga is called prathama kalpita. The next stage of enlightenment is called madhu bhumika, which literally means very sweet, like honey. Very exquisite is the experience, very delicious; that is what the word madhu actually means here madhu bhumika. The third transformation is called prajna jyotis. There is a flash of the supernal light of the purusha, or the Absolute. We begin to enter into the daylight of the Eternal. And the last stage is supposed to be the borderl and of the communion of the individual with the Absolute, the Universal. That is called atikranta bhavaniya, which surpasses all comprehension. No thought can understand or imagine what it is. Even the highest stretch of imagination cannot conceive what it is. Therefore, it is designated as atikranta bhavaniya.
Now, the teachers of yoga tell us that there are very great dangers which one has to face at certain stages of this ascent. These dangers come from the activity of the senses and the ego. Where do these dangers come from? They come from certain encounters of the meditative individual. What does it encounter? It encounters certain forces which present themselves as personalities, forms, shapes, objects, etc. These forms, which present themselves before ones experience, are the very counterparts of the desires of the senses and the ego. It is to be noted here that everything that is in our individual personality has a cosmical counterpart. Whether it is good or bad, whether it is of this nature or that nature, everything that is inside has a counterpart in the outer world. So, the pressure exerted by any particular aspect in the individual personality stirs up the corresponding counterpart in the outer world, and we encounter that. It is something like the operations of a puppet show. A person operating the movement of puppets with strings is the power that conditions these movements outside. The operator behind moves the fingers in a particular way and accordingly, correspondingly, there is the movement of the puppets outside.
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But in yoga, something different happens. We are not pushing aside certain aspects of our personality and presenting only certain predominant features for the purpose of objective experience. The entire thing is stirred up into action, because the purpose of yoga is to liberate the soul from the total bondage to which it is subject in the form of phenomenal experience. Therefore, we have to face everything, every day, at one stroke. This happens, says the Yoga Shastra, at a particular stage not in the very advanced stage of prajna jyotis or atikranta bhavaniya, where we have completely mastered everything and we know things very well, nor when nothing has happened and we are just at the rudimentary, beginning stage of practice. These difficulties start when we are about to transcend the first level this is what the Yoga Shastra tells us. When we have entered the stage called prathama kalpita and we are about to rise to the next one, namely, the madhu bhumika, then there is this dramatic encounter of the meditating consciousness with everything blessed on earth or in heaven.
What is it that we are going to encounter? It is not easy for anyone to detail these before they come. But, generally speaking, they are supposed to be the forms taken by ones own weaknesses. Every person has some weakness, which is smothered and stifled by the apparent personality that one puts forth in human society. But that weakness still persists. It is kept there in ambush, waiting for favourable conditions to manifest. These weaknesses are those which pertain to the senses and the ego. The senses vehemently assert the reality of an external object. This is the peculiar weakness of the senses, and whatever arguments we put forth before them, they are of no avail. And the ego has a peculiar feature of affirming itself as an isolated individual. It will oppose any attempt at communion, which is the thing that we want to achieve in yoga, because communion is losing of personality, which is what is very painful to the ego.
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1.09 - ADVICE TO THE BRAHMOS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
SRI RAMAKRISHNA was visiting Balarm in Calcutta, with Narendra, bhavanath, Rkhl , M., and others. Balarm, at the Master's bidding, had invited some of the young devotees to lunch. Sri Ramakrishna often said to him, "Feed them now and then; that will confer on you the merit of feeding holy men." The Master looked on his young disciples, yet untouched by "woman and gold", as veritable embodiments of God.
A few days earlier Sri Ramakrishna had been to Keshab's house with Narendra and Rkhl to see a performance of the play entitled Nava-Vrindvan. Narendra had taken part in the performance, in which Keshab had played the role of Pavhari Baba.
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Then at the Master's bidding bhavanath sang:
Where is a friend like Thee, O Essence of Mercy?
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Narendra said to the Master with a smile, referring to bhavanath, "He has given up fish and betel-leaf."
MASTER: "Why so? What is the matter with fish and betel-leaf? They aren't harmful.
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MANILAL: "Yes, sir. I paid my respects to Trailanga Swami, bhaskarananda, and others."
MASTER: "Tell us something about them."
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MANILAL: "Trailanga Swami keeps a strict vow of silence. Unlike him, bhaskarananda is friendly with all."
MASTER: "Did you have any conversation with bhaskarananda?"
MANILAL: "Yes, sir. We had a long talk. Among other things we discussed the problem of good and evil. He said to me: 'Don't follow the path of evil. Give up sinful thoughts.
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MANILAL: "Sir, what you have just said applies to a man of a very lofty spiritual state. I talked on such topics in a general way with bhaskarananda."
MASTER: "Does he live in a house?"
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MANILAL: "I asked him how to cultivate bhakti. He said: 'Chant the name of God.
Repeat the name of Rma.' "
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" 'As is a man's feeling of love, so is his gain.' Once two friends were going along the street, when they saw some people listening to a reading of the bhagavata. 'Come, friend', said the one to the other. 'Let us hear the sacred book.' So saying he went in and sat down. The second man peeped in and went away. He entered a house of ill fame. But very soon he felt disgusted with the place. 'Shame on me!' he said to himself. 'My friend has been listening to the sacred word of Hari; and see where I am!'
But the friend who had been listening to the bhagavata also became disgusted. 'What a fool I am!' he said. 'I have been listening to this fellow's blah-blah, and my friend is having a grand time.' In course of time they both died. The messenger of Death came for the soul of the one who had listened to the bhagavata and dragged it off to hell. The messenger of God came for the soul of the one who had been to the house of prostitution and led it up to heaven.
"Verily, the Lord looks into a man's heart and does not judge him by what he does or where he lives. 'Krishna accepts a devotee's inner feeling of love.'
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Dwell, O Lord, O Lover of bhakti,
In the Vrindvan of my heart,
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1.09 - Kundalini Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
8. Neti, Dhauti, Nauli, bhasti, Kapala bhati and Trataka are the Shat-Kriyas or six Yoga Kriyas.
9. Mula-Bandha, Jalandhara-Bandha, Uddiyana-Bandha, Maha-Bandhaare the important Bandhas.
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1.09 - Saraswati and Her Consorts, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Life-breath. In the lesser gods the naturalistic interpretation has less ground for confidence; for it is obvious that Varuna is not merely a Vedic Uranus or Neptune, but a god with great and important moral functions; Mitra and bhaga have the same psychological aspect; the Ribhus who form things by the mind and build up immortality by works can with difficulty be crushed into the Procrustean measure of a naturalistic mythology. Still by imputing a chaotic confusion of ideas to the poets of the Vedic hymns the difficulty can be trampled upon, if not overcome.
But Saraswati will submit to no such treatment. She is, plainly and clearly, the goddess of the Word, the goddess of a divine
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Saraswati is not only connected with other rivers but with other goddesses who are plainly psychological symbols and especially with bharati and Ila. In the later Puranic forms of worship Saraswati is the goddess of speech, of learning and of poetry and bharati is one of her names, but in the Veda bharati and Saraswati are different deities. bharati is also called Mahi, the Large, Great or Vast. The three, Ila, Mahi or bharati and
Saraswati are associated together in a constant formula in those hymns of invocation in which the gods are called by Agni to the
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A no yajnam bharat tuyam etu, il.a manus.vad iha cetayant;
Tisro devr barhir edam syonam, sarasvat svapasah. sadantu.
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"May bharati come speeding to our sacrifice and Ila hither awakening our consciousness (or, knowledge or perceptions) in human wise, and Saraswati, - three goddesses sit on this blissful seat, doing well the Work."
It is clear and will become yet clearer that these three goddesses have closely connected functions akin to the inspirational power of Saraswati. Saraswati is the Word, the inspiration, as
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bharati and Ila must also be different forms of the same Word or knowledge. In the eighth hymn of Madhuchchhandas we have a Rik in which bharati is mentioned under the name of Mahi.
Eva hyasya sunr.ta, viraps gomat mah; pakva sakha na dasus.e.
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Rishi, the Kavi, the Seer of the Truth, we can understand the close connection of Ila and Saraswati. bharati or Mahi is the largeness of the Truth-consciousness which, dawning on man's limited mind, brings with it the two sister Puissances. We can also understand how these fine and living distinctions came afterwards to be neglected as the Vedic knowledge declined and
bharati, Saraswati, Ila melted into one.
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bring to birth for man the Bliss, Mayas. I have already insisted on the constant relation, as conceived by the Vedic seers, between the Truth and the Bliss or Ananda. It is by the dawning of the true or infinite consciousness in man that he arrives out of this evil dream of pain and suffering, this divided creation into the Bliss, the happy state variously described in Veda by the words bhadram, mayas (love and bliss), svasti (the good state of existence, right being) and by others less technically used such as varyam, rayih., rayah.. For the Vedic Rishi Truth is the passage and the antechamber, the Bliss of the divine existence is the goal, or else Truth is the foundation, Bliss the supreme result.
Such, then, is the character of Saraswati as a psychological principle, her peculiar function and her relation to her most immediate connections among the gods. How far do these shed any light on her relations as the Vedic river to her six sister streams?
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1.09 - The Chosen Ideal, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
The next thing to be considered is what we know as Ishta-Nishth. One who aspires to be a bhakta must know that "so many opinions are so many ways". He must know that all the various sects of the various religions are the various manifestations of the glory of the same Lord. "They call You by so many names; they divide You, as it were, by different names, yet in each one of these is to be found Your omnipotence....You reach the worshipper through all of these, neither is there any special time so long as the soul has intense love for You. You are so easy of approach; it is my misfortune that I cannot love You." Not only this, the bhakta must take care not to hate, nor even to criticise those radiant sons of light who are the founders of various sects; he must not even hear them spoken ill of. Very few indeed are those who are at once the possessors of an extensive sympathy and power of appreciation, as well as an intensity of love. We find, as a rule, that liberal and sympathetic sects lose the intensity of religious feeling, and in their hands, religion is apt to degenerate into a kind of politico-social club life.
On the other hand, intensely narrow sectaries, whilst displaying a very commendable love of their own ideals, are seen to have acquired every particle of that love by hating every one who is not of exactly the same opinions as themselves. Would to God that this world was full of men who were as intense in their love as worldwide in their sympathies! But such are only few and far between. Yet we know that it is practicable to educate large numbers of human beings into the ideal of a wonderful blending of both the width and the intensity of love; and the way to do that is by this path of the Istha-Nishtha or "steadfast devotion to the chosen ideal". Every sect of every religion presents only one ideal of its own to mankind, but the eternal Vedantic religion opens to mankind an infinite number of doors for ingress into the inner shrine of divinity, and places before humanity an almost inexhaustible array of ideals, there being in each of them a manifestation of the Eternal One. With the kindest solicitude, the Vedanta points out to aspiring men and women the numerous roads, hewn out of the solid rock of the realities of human life, by the glorious sons, or human manifestations, of God, in the past and in the present, and stands with outstretched arms to welcome all to welcome even those that are yet to be to that Home of Truth and that Ocean of Bliss, wherein the human soul, liberated from the net of My, may transport itself with perfect freedom and with eternal joy.
bhakti-Yoga, therefore, lays on us the imperative comm and not to hate or deny any one of the various paths that lead to salvation. Yet the growing plant must be hedged round to protect it until it has grown into a tree. The tender plant of spirituality will die if exposed too early to the action of a constant change of ideas and ideals. Many people, in the name of what may be called religious liberalism, may be seen feeding their idle curiosity with a continuous succession of different ideals. With them, hearing new things grows into a kind of disease, a sort of religious drink-mania. They want to hear new things just by way of getting a temporary nervous excitement, and when one such exciting influence has had its effect on them, they are ready for another. Religion is with these people a sort of intellectual opiumeating, and there it ends. "There is another sort of man", says bhagavan Ramakrishna, "who is like the pearl-oyster of the story. The pearl-oyster leaves its bed at the bottom of the sea, and comes up to the surface to catch the rain-water when the star Svti is in the ascendant. It floats about on the surface of the sea with its shell wide open, until it has succeeded in catching a drop of the rain-water, and then it dives deep down to its sea-bed, and there rests until it has succeeded in fashioning a beautiful pearl out of that rain-drop."
This is indeed the most poetical and forcible way in which the theory of Ishta-Nishtha has ever been put. This Eka-Nishtha or devotion to one ideal is absolutely necessary for the beginner in the practice of religious devotion. He must say with Hanuman in the Rmyana, "Though I know that the Lord of Shri and the Lord of Jnaki are both manifestations of the same Supreme Being, yet my all in all is the lotus-eyed Rma." Or, as was said by the sage Tulasidsa, he must say, "Take the sweetness of all, sit with all, take the name of all, say yea, yea, but keep your seat firm." Then, if the devotional aspirant is sincere, out of this little seed will come a gigantic tree like the Indian banyan, sending out branch after branch and root after root to all sides, till it covers the entire field of religion. Thus will the true devotee realise that He who was his own ideal in life is worshipped in all ideals by all sects, under all names, and through all forms.
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1.1.01 - Seeking the Divine, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
No, what you write in your letter was not at all what the Mother was trying to tell you. The question of ahaituk bhakti and its opposite was settled long ago and the Mother did not intend to return upon it; it is understood that whatever the motive immediately pushing the mind or the vital, an asking for Ananda or knowledge or power, yet if there is a true seeking for the
Divine in the being, it must lead eventually to the realisation of the Divine. The soul within has always the inherent (ahaituk) yearning for the Divine; the hetu or special motive is simply an impulsion used by it to get the mind and the vital to follow the inner urge. If the mind and the vital can feel and accept the soul's sheer love for the Divine for his own sake, then the sadhana gets its full power and many difficulties disappear; but even if they do not, they will get what they seek after in the Divine and through it they will come to realise something, even perhaps to pass beyond the limit of their original desire. I may say that the idea of a joyless God is an absurdity which only the ignorance of
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All this, however, has nothing to do with what the Mother wished to say in the morning. What she told you was that you seemed to have a fixed notion about the Divine, as of a rather distant Being somewhere whom you expect to give you an article called Ananda, and, when there is some prospect of his giving it to you, you are on good terms with him, but when he doesn't, you quarrel and revolt and call him names! And she said a notion of the kind was in itself an obstacle, - because it is rather far from the Truth, - in the way of realising the Divine. What is this Ananda that you seek, after all? The mind can see in it nothing but a pleasant psychological condition, - but if it were only that, it would not be the rapture which the bhaktas and the mystics find in it. When the Ananda comes into you, it is the Divine who comes into you; just as when the Peace flows into you, it is the Divine who is invading you, or when you are flooded with Light, it is the flood of the Divine Himself that is around you. Of course, the Divine is something much more; many other things besides and in them all a Presence, a
Being, a Divine Person; for the Divine is Krishna, is Shiva, is the Supreme Mother But through the Ananda you can perceive the Anandamaya Krishna; for the Ananda is the subtle body and being of Krishna; through the Peace you can perceive the
Shantimaya Shiva; in the Light, in the delivering Knowledge, the Love, the fulfilling and uplifting Power you can meet the presence of the Divine Mother It is this perception that makes the experiences of the bhaktas and mystics so rapturous and enables them to pass more easily through the nights of anguish and separation - when there is this soul-perception, it gives to even a little or brief Ananda a force or value it would not otherwise have and the Ananda itself gathers by it a growing power to stay, to return, to increase.This was what the Mother meant
Seeking the Divine
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1.1.02 - The Aim of the Integral Yoga, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
(4) To talk about the supramental and think of bringing it down in yourself is the most dangerous of all. It may bring an entire megalomania and loss of balance. What the sadhak has to seek is the full opening to the Divine, the psychic change of his consciousness, the spiritual change. Of that change of consciousness, selflessness, desirelessness, humility, bhakti, surrender, calm, equality, peace, quiet, sincerity are necessary constituents. Until he has the psychic and spiritual change, to think of being supramental is an absurdity and an arrogant absurdity.
All these egoistic ideas, if indulged, can only aggrandise the ego, spoil the sadhana and lead to serious spiritual dangers. They should be rejected altogether.
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1.1.05 - The Siddhis, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Siddhis, but recognised them as a part, though not the most important part of Yogic accomplishment, and used them with an abundant and unhesitating vigour. They are recognised in our sacred books, formally included in Yoga by so devotional a Purana as the bhagawat, noted and some of their processes carefully tabled by Patanjali. Even in the midnight of the Kali great Siddhas and saints have used them more sparingly, but with power and effectiveness. It would be difficult for many of them to do otherwise than use the siddhis since by the very fact of their spiritual elevation, these powers have become not exceptional movements, but the ordinary processes of their thought and action. It is by the use of the siddhis that the Siddhas sitting on the mountains help the world out of the heart of their solitude and silence. Jesus Christ made the use of the siddhis a prominent feature of his pure, noble and spiritual life, nor did he hesitate to communicate them to his disciples - the laying of hands, the healing of the sick, the ashirvada, the abhishap, the speaking with many tongues were all given to them. The day of Pentecost is still kept holy by the Christian Church. Joan of Arc used her siddhis to liberate France. Socrates had his siddhis, some of them of a very material nature. Men of great genius are usually born with some of them and use them unconsciously. Even in natures far below the power and clarity of genius we see their occasional or irregular operation. The West, always avid of knowledge, is struggling, sadly hampered by misuse and imposture, to develop them and gropes roughly for the truth about them in the phenomena of hypnotism, clairvoyance, telepathy, vouched for by men and women of great intellectuality and sincerity. Returning
Eastwards, where only their right practice has been understood, the lives of our saints northern and southern are full of the record of Siddhis. Sri Ramakrishna, whose authority is quoted against
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1.10 - GRACE AND FREE WILL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
For those who take pleasure in theological speculations based upon scriptural texts and dogmatic postulates, there are the thousands of pages of Catholic and Protestant controversy upon grace, works, faith and justification. And for students of comparative religion there are scholarly commentaries on the bhagavad Gita, on the works of Ramanuja and those later Vaishnavites, whose doctrine of grace bears a striking resemblance to that of Luther; there are histories of Buddhism which duly trace the development of that religion from the Hinayanist doctrine that salvation is the fruit of strenuous self-help to the Mahayanist doctrine that it cannot be achieved without the grace of the Primordial Buddha, whose inner consciousness and great compassionate heart constitute the eternal Suchness of things. For the rest of us, the foregoing quotations from writers within the Christian and early Taoist tradition provide, it seems to me, an adequate account of the observable facts of grace and inspiration and their relation to the observable facts of free will.
next chapter: 1.11 - GOOD AND EVIL
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1.10 - Mantra Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
8. Repetition of Gayatri or Pranava or Om Namah Sivaya, Om Namo Narayanaya, Om Namo bhagavate Vasudevaya, one and a quarter lakh of times with bhava, faith and devotion will confer on you Mantra Siddhi.
9. OM, Soham, Sivoham, Aham Brahmasmi are Moksha Mantras. They will help you to attain Self-realisation. Om Sri Ramaya Namah, Om Namo bhagavate Vasudevaya are Saguna Mantras which will enable you to attain Saguna realisation first and then Nirguna realisation in the end.
10. Mantra for curing scorpion stings and cobra bites should be repeated on eclipse days for getting Mantra Siddhi quickly. You should stand in the water and repeat the Mantra. This is more powerful and effective. They can be recited on ordinary days also for attaining Mantra-Siddhi.
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14. Those who utilise the Mantra power in curing snake bites, scorpion stings and chronic diseases should not accept any kind of presents or money. They must be absolutely unselfish. They should not accept even fruits or clothes. They will lose the power if they utilise the power for selfish purposes. If they are absolutely unselfish, if they serve the humanity with Sarvatma bhava, their power will increase through the grace of the Lord.
15. He who attained Mantra Siddhi can cure cobra bite or scorpion sting or any chronic disease by mere touch on the affected part. When a man is bitten by a cobra a telegram is sent to the Mantra Siddha. The Mantra Siddha recites the Mantra and the man who is bitten by a cobra is cured. What a grand marvel! Does this not prove the tremendous power of Mantra?
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1.10 - The descendants of the daughters of Daksa married to the Rsis, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
[10]: According to the commentator, this distinction is derived from the Vedas. The first class, or Agniṣvāttas, consists of those householders who, when alive, did not maintain their domestic fires, nor offer burnt-sacrifices: the second, of those who kept up the household flame, and presented oblations with fire. Manu calls these Agnidagdhas and the reverse, which Sir W. Jones renders, 'consumable by fire,' &c. Kullūka bhaṭṭa gives no explanation of them. The Bhāgavata adds other classes of Pitris; or, the Ājyapas, drinkers of ghee;' and Somapās, drinkers of the acid juice.' The commentator, explaining the meaning of the terms Sāgnayas and Anāgnyas, has, ### which might be understood to signify, that the Pitris who are 'without fire' are those to whom oblations are not offered; and those 'with fire' are they to whom oblations are presented.
[11]: The Vāyu carries this genealogy forward. Dhāranī was married to Meru, and p. 85 had by him Mandara and three daughters, Niyati, Āyati, and Velā: the two first were married to Dhātri and Vidhātri (p. 81). Velā was the wife of Samudra, by whom she had Sāmudrī, married to Pracīnavarhiṣ, and the mother of the ten Pracetasas, the fathers of Dakṣa, as subsequently narrated. Menā was married to Himāvat, and was the mother of Maināka, and of Ga
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[12]: No notice is here taken of Sati, married to bhava, as is intimated in c. 8 (p. 59), when describing the Rudras. Of these genealogies the fullest and apparently the oldest account is given in the Vāyu P.: as far as that of our text extends, the two nearly agree, allowing for differences of appellation originating in inaccurate transcription, the names frequently varying in different copies of the same work, leaving it doubtful which reading should be preferred. The Bhāgavata, as observed above (p. 54. n. 12), has created some further perplexity by substituting, as the wives of the patriarchs, the daughters of Kardama for those of Dakṣa. Of the general statement it may be observed, that although in some respects allegorical, as in the names of the wives of the Ṛṣis (p. 54); and in others astronomical, as in the denominations of the daughters of Anginas (p. 82); yet it seems probable that it is not altogether fabulous, but that the persons in some instances had a real existence, the genealogies originating in imperfectly preserved traditions of the families of the first teachers of the Hindu religion, and of the descent of individuals who took an active share in its propagation.
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1.10 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES (II), #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"I give the Brahmos the illustration of water and ice. Satchidananda is like an endless expanse of water. The water of the great ocean in cold regions freezes into blocks of ice. Similarly, through the cooling influence of divine love, Satchidananda assumes forms for the sake of the bhaktas. The rishis had the vision of the supersensuous Spirit-form and talked with It. But devotees acquire a 'love body', and with its help they see the Spirit-form of the Absolute.
"It is also said in the Vedas that Brahman is beyond mind and words. The heat of the sun of Knowledge melts the ice-like form of the Personal God. On attaining the Knowledge of Brahman and communing with It in nirvikalpa samdhi, one realizes Brahman, the Infinite, without form or shape and beyond mind and words.
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Ram had arranged a special festival to celebrate the Master's visit. The small courtyard was nicely decorated. A kathak, seated on a raised platform, was reciting from the bhagavata when the Master arrived. Ram greeted him respectfully and seated him near the reader. The disciple was extremely happy. The kathak was in the midst of the story of King Harischandra.
Story of Harishchandra
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The Master listened to the story from the bhagavata with great attention and said at last, "Yes, the gopis were right."
Then he sang:
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Listen, Chandravali! I shall tell you of love: Mukti a man may gain, but rare is bhakti.
Solely for pure love's sake did I become
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1.10 - The Methods and the Means, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
In regard to the method and the means of bhakti-Yoga we read in the commentary of bhagavan Ramanuja on the Vedanta-Sutras: "The attaining of That comes through discrimination, controlling the passions, practice, sacrificial work, purity, strength, and suppression of excessive joy." Viveka or discrimination is, according to Ramanuja, discriminating, among other things, the pure food from the impure. According to him, food becomes impure from three causes: (1) by the nature of the food itself, as in the case of garlic etc.; (2) owing to its coming from wicked and accursed persons; and (3) from physical impurities, such as dirt, or hair, etc. The Shrutis say, When the food is pure, the Sattva element gets purified, and the memory becomes unwavering", and Ramanuja quotes this from the Chhndogya Upanishad.
The question of food has always been one of the most vital with the bhaktas. Apart from the extravagance into which some of the bhakti sects have run, there is a great truth underlying this question of food. We must remember that, according to the Sankhya philosophy, the Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, which in the state of homogeneous equilibrium form the Prakriti, and in the heterogeneous disturbed condition form the universe are both the substance and the quality of Prakriti. As such they are the materials out of which every human form has been manufactured, and the predominance of the Sattva material is what is absolutely necessary for spiritual development. The materials which we receive through our food into our body-structure go a great way to determine our mental constitution; therefore the food we eat has to be particularly taken care of. However, in this matter, as in others, the fanaticism into which the disciples invariably fall is not to be laid at the door of the masters.
And this discrimination of food is, after all, of secondary importance. The very same passage quoted above is explained by Shankara in his Bhshya on the Upanishads in a different way by giving an entirely different meaning to the word hra, translated generally as food. According to him, "That which is gathered in is Ahara. The knowledge of the sensations, such as sound etc., is gathered in for the enjoyment of the enjoyer (self); the purification of the knowledge which gathers in the perception of the senses is the purifying of the food (Ahara). The word 'purification-of-food' means the acquiring of the knowledge of sensations untouched by the defects of attachment, aversion, and delusion; such is the meaning. Therefore such knowledge or Ahara being purified, the Sattva material of the possessor it the internal organ will become purified, and the Sattva being purified, an unbroken memory of the Infinite One, who has been known in His real nature from scriptures, will result."
These two explanations are apparently conflicting, yet both are true and necessary. The manipulating and controlling of what may be called the finer body, viz the mood, are no doubt higher functions than the controlling of the grosser body of flesh. But the control of the grosser is absolutely necessary to enable one to arrive at the control of the finer. The beginner, therefore, must pay particular attention to all such dietetic rules as have come down from the line of his accredited teachers; but the extravagant, meaningless fanaticism, which has driven religion entirely to the kitchen, as may be noticed in the case of many of our sects, without any hope of the noble truth of that religion ever coming out to the sunlight of spirituality, is a peculiar sort of pure and simple materialism. It is neither Jnna, nor bhakti, nor Karma; it is a special kind of lunacy, and those who pin their souls to it are more likely to go to lunatic asylums than to Brahmaloka. So it stands to reason that discrimination in the choice of food is necessary for the attainment of this higher state of mental composition which cannot be easily obtained otherwise.
Controlling the passions is the next thing to be attended to. To restrain the Indriyas (organs) from going towards the objects of the senses, to control them and bring them under the guidance of the will, is the very central virtue in religious culture. Then comes the practice of self-restraint and self-denial.
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Purity is absolutely the basic work, the bed-rock upon which the whole bhakti-building rests.
Cleansing the external body and discriminating the food are both easy, but without internal cleanliness and purity, these external observances are of no value whatsoever. In the list of qualities conducive to purity, as given by Ramanuja, there are enumerated, Satya, truthfulness; rjava, sincerity; Day, doing good to others without any gain to one's self; Ahims, not injuring others by thought, word, or deed; Anabhidhy, not coveting others' goods, not thinking vain thoughts, and not brooding over injuries received from another. In this list, the one idea that deserves special notice is Ahimsa, non-injury to others. This duty of non-injury is, so to speak, obligatory on us in relation to all beings. As with some, it does not simply mean the non-injuring of human beings and mercilessness towards the lower animals; nor, as with some others, does it mean the protecting of cats and dogs and feeding of ants with sugar with liberty to injure brother-man in every horrible way! It is remarkable that almost every good idea in this world can be carried to a disgusting extreme. A good practice carried to an extreme and worked in accordance with the letter of the law becomes a positive evil. The stinking monks of certain religious sects, who do not ba the lest the vermin on their bodies should be killed, never think of the discomfort and disease they bring to their fellow human beings. They do not, however, belong to the religion of the Vedas!
The test of Ahimsa is absence of jealousy. Any man may do a good deed or make a good gift on the spur of the moment or under the pressure of some superstition or priestcraft; but the real lover of mankind is he who is jealous of none. The so-called great men of the world may all be seen to become jealous of each other for a small name, for a little fame, and for a few bits of gold. So long as this jealousy exists in a heart, it is far away from the perfection of Ahimsa. The cow does not eat meat, nor does the sheep. Are they great Yogis, great non-injurers (Ahimsakas)? Any fool may abstain from eating this or that; surely that gives him no more distinction than to herbivorous animals. The man who will mercilessly cheat widows and orphans and do the vilest deeds for money is worse than any brute even if he lives entirely on grass. The man whose heart never cherishes even the thought of injury to any one, who rejoices at the prosperity of even his greatest enemy, that man is the bhakta, he is the Yogi, he is the Guru of all, even though he lives every day of his life on the flesh of swine. Therefore we must always remember that external practices have value only as helps to develop internal purity. It is better to have internal purity alone when minute attention to external observances is not practicable.
But woe unto the man and woe unto the nation that forgets the real, internal, spiritual essentials of religion and mechanically clutches with death-like grasp at all external forms and never lets them go.
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The next means to the attainment of bhakti-Yoga is strength (Anavasda). "This Atman is not to be attained by the weak", says the Shruti. Both physical weakness and mental weakness are meant here.
"The strong, the hardy" are the only fit students. What can puny, little, decrepit things do? They will break to pieces whenever the mysterious forces of the body and mind are even slightly awakened by the practice of any of the Yogas. It is "the young, the healthy, the strong" that can score success.
Physical strength, therefore, is absolutely necessary. It is the strong body alone that can bear the shock of reaction resulting from the attempt to control the organs. He who wants to become a bhakta must be strong, must be healthy. When the miserably weak attempt any of the Yogas, they are likely to get some incurable malady, or they weaken their minds. Voluntarily weakening the body is really no prescription for spiritual enlightenment.
The mentally weak also cannot succeed in attaining the Atman. The person who aspires to be a bhakta must be cheerful. In the Western world the idea of a religious man is that he never smiles, that a dark cloud must always hang over his face, which, again, must be long drawn with the jaws almost collapsed. People with emaciated bodies and long faces are fit subjects for the physician, they are not Yogis. It is the cheerful mind that is persevering. It is the strong mind that hews its way through a thousand difficulties. And this, the hardest task of all, the cutting of our way out of the net of Maya, is the work reserved only for giant wills.
Yet at the same time excessive mirth should be avoided (Anuddharsha). Excessive mirth makes us unfit for serious thought. It also fritters away the energies of the mind in vain. The stronger the will, the less the yielding to the sway of the emotions. Excessive hilarity is quite as objectionable as too much of sad seriousness, and all religious realisation is possible only when the mind is in a steady, peaceful condition of harmonious equilibrium.
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1.10 - The Revolutionary Yogi, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
But it would be wrong to imagine Sri Aurobindo as a fanatic; all his contemporaries were struck by this "calm young man who with a single word could silence a tumultuous meeting." It was in the midst of this external turmoil, between political meetings and the newspaper to get out every morning (and under constant threat from the secret police) that, on December 30, 1907, Sri Aurobindo met a yogi by the name of Vishnu bhaskar Lele, who was to bring a paradoxical experience into his already paradoxical life.
It was the first time, after thirteen years in India, that Sri Aurobindo voluntarily met a yogi! It shows how much he distrusted asceticism and spiritualists. His first question to Lele was typical: I
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1.11 - Correspondence and Interviews, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
There was another interview in 1950 with the Maharaja of bhavanagar who was then Governor of Madras. Sri Aurobindo was not well at that time. Still, he did not cancel the interview. I had the impression that he would have been willing to see other people too if they had so desired and would have conferred his blessings on them.
Then there were the long series of regular interviews with Surendra Mohan Ghose extending over some years up to even a few months before Sri Aurobindo's withdrawal. I should not call them interviews, for he was Sri Aurobindo's political follower in the early days, and later his disciple, and a prominent political leader of Bengal. Whenever he visited the Ashram, he had meetings with the Master to get guidance in his political work which he had accepted as his work. Sri Aurobindo used him as his instrument and said to us, "He is my man." In the talks he gave to the students of our Centre of Education, Surendra Mohan partially disclosed the various issues he had discussed with him. They were mostly international, national and provincial situations as well as spiritual matters. They constitute a very illuminating document testifying to Sri Aurobindo's external intervention in politics, besides his occult action. I often used to see Surendra Mohan in advance to get current news and Sri Aurobindo would ask, "What does Surendra Mohan say?"
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1.1.1 - The Mind and Other Levels of Being, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The ways of the Divine are not like those of the human mind or according to our patterns and it is impossible to judge them or to lay down for Him what He shall or shall not do, for the Divine knows better than we can know. If we admit the Divine at all, both true reason and bhakti seem to me to be at one in demanding implicit faith and surrender.
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1.11 - The Seven Rivers, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
12. Akro na babhrih. sami the mahnam, didr.ks.eyah. sunave bha-r.jkah.;
Ud usriya janita yo jajana, apam garbho nr.tamo yahvo agnih..
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14. Br.hanta id bhanavo bha-r.jkam, agnim sacanta vidyuto na sukrah.;
Guheva vr.ddham sadasi sve antar, apara urve amr.tam duhanah..
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1.11 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINEWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Then Sri Ramakrishna sat up on his bed and told Manilal about bhavanath's devotion to God.
MASTER: "Ah, what an exalted state he is in! He has hardly begun to sing about God before his eyes fill with tears. The very sight of Harish made him ecstatic. He said that Harish was very lucky. He made the remark because Harish was spending a few days here, now and then, away from his home."
Sri Ramakrishna asked M., "Well, what is the cause of bhakti? Why should the spiritual feeling of young boys like bhavanath be awakened?" M. remained silent.
MASTER: "The fact is, all men may look alike from the outside, but some of them have fillings of 'condensed milk'. Cakes may have fillings of condensed milk or powdered black grams, but they all look alike from the outside. The desire to know God, ecstatic love of Him, and such other spiritual qualities are the 'condensed milk'."
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After a time bhagavati, an old maidservant of the temple proprietor, entered the room and saluted the Master from a distance. Sri Ramakrishna bade her sit down. The Master had known her for many years. In her younger days she had lived a rather immoral life; but the Master's compassion was great. Soon he began to converse with her.
MASTER: "Now you are pretty old. Have you been feeding the Vaishnavas and holy men, and thus spending your money in a noble way?"
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bhaGAVATI: "Yes, sir. My name, 'Srimati bhagavati Dasi', is written there."
MASTER (with a smile): "How nice!"
Emboldened by the Master's words, bhagavati approached and saluted him, touching his feet. Like a man stung by a scorpion, Sri Ramakrishna stood up and cried out, "Govinda! Govinda!" A big jar of Ganges water stood in a comer of the room. He hurried there, panting, and washed with the holy water the spot the maidservant had touched.
The devotees in the room were amazed to see this incident. bhagavati sat as if struck dead.
Sri Ramakrishna consoled her and said in a very kindly tone, "You should salute me from a distance." In order to relieve her mind of all embarrassment, the Master said tenderly, "Listen to a few songs."
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"Let me tell you something. Whenever you come here, bring a trifle with you. Perhaps I shouldn't say it; it may look like egotism. I also told Adhar Sen that he should bring a pennyworth of something with him. I asked bhavanath to bring a pennyworth of betel-leaf. Have you noticed bhavanath's devotion? Narendra and he seem like man and woman. He is devoted to Narendra. Bring Narendra here with you in a carriage, and also bring some sweets with you. It will do you good.
Paths of love and knowledge
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"I loved to hear the reading of sacred books such as the Ramayana and bhagavata. If the readers had any affectations, I could easily imitate them and would entertain others with my mimicry.
"I understood the behaviour of women very well and imitated their words and intonations. I could easily recognize immoral women. Immoral widows part their hair in the middle and perform their toilet with great care. They have very little modesty. The way they sit is so different! But let's not talk of worldly things any more."
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"Hence the bhakti scriptures describe this very world as a 'mansion of mirth'.
Ramprasad sang in one of his songs, 'This world is a framework of illusion.' Another devotee gave the reply, 'This very world is a mansion of mirth.' As the saying goes, 'The devotee of Kali, free while living, is full of Eternal Bliss.' The bhakta sees that He who is God has also become maya. Again, He Himself has become the universe and all its living beings. The bhakta sees God, maya, the universe, and the living beings as one. Some devotees see everything as Rma: it is Rma alone who has become everything. Some see everything as Radha and Krishna. To them it is Krishna alone who has become the twenty-four cosmic principles. It is like seeing everything green through green glasses.
"But the bhakti scriptures admit that the manifestations of Power are different in different beings. It is Rma who has become everything, no doubt; but He manifests Himself more in some than in others. There is one kind of manifestation of Rma in the Incarnation of God, and another in men. Even the Incarnations are conscious of the body. Embodiment is due to maya. Rma wept for Sita. But the Incarnation of God puts a bondage over His eyes by His own will, like children playing blindman's buff. The children stop playing when their mother calls them. It is quite different, however, with the ordinary man. The cloth his eyes are bandaged with is fastened to his back with screws, as it were. There are eight fetters. Shame, hatred, fear, caste, lineage, good conduct, grief, and secretiveness-these are the eight fetters. And they cannot be unfastened without the help of a guru.
Earnestness in spiritual life extolled
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" 'I am He', 'I am the Pure Self'-that is the conclusion of the jnanis. But the bhaktas say, 'The whole universe is the glory of God.' Who would recognize a wealthy man without his power and riches? But it is quite different when God Himself, gratified by the aspirant's devotion, says to him, 'You are the same as Myself.' Suppose a king is seated in his court, and his cook enters the hall, sits on the throne, and says, 'O King, you and I are the same!' People will certainly call him a madman. But suppose one day the king, pleased with the cook's service, says to him: 'Come, sit beside me. There is nothing wrong in that. There is no difference between you and me.' Then, if the cook sits on the throne with the king, there is no harm in it. It is not good for ordinary people to say, 'I am He'. The waves belong to the water. Does the water belong to the waves?
Result of yoga through bhakti
"The upshot of the whole thing is that, no matter what path you follow, yoga is impossible unless the mind becomes quiet. The mind of a yogi is under his control; he is not under the control of his mind. When the mind is quiet the prana stops functioning.
Then one gets kum bhaka. One may have the same kum bhaka through bhaktiyoga as well; the prana stops functioning through love of God too. In the kirtan the musician sings, 'Nitai amar mata hati!' Repeating this, he goes into a spiritual mood and cannot sing the whole sentence. He simply sings, 'Hati! Hati' When the mood deepens he sings only, 'Ha! Ha!' Thus his prana stops through ecstasy, and kum bhaka follows.
"Suppose a man is sweeping a courtyard with his broom, and another man comes and says to him: 'Hello! So-and-so is no more. He is dead.' Now, if the dead person was not related to the sweeper, the latter goes on with his work, remarking casually: 'Ah! That's too bad. He is dead. He was a good fellow.' The sweeping goes on all the same. But if the dead man was his relative, then the broom drops from his hand. 'Ah!' he exclaims, and he too drops to the ground. His prana has stopped functioning. He can neither work nor think. Haven't you noticed, among women, that if one of them looks at something or listens to something in speechless amazement, the other women say to her, 'What? Are you in ecstasy?' In this instance, too, the prana has stopped functioning, and so she remains speechless, with mouth agape.
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MASTER (to the devotees): "Why shouldn't one be able to attain spirituality, living the life of a householder? But it is extremely difficult. Sages like Janaka entered the world after attaining Knowledge. But still the world is a place of terror. Even a detached householder has to be careful. Once Janaka bent down his head at the sight of a bhairavi. He shrank from seeing a woman. The bhairavi said to him: 'Janaka, I see you have not yet attained Knowledge. You still differentiate between man and woman.'
"If you move about in a room filled with soot, you will soil your body, however slightly, no matter how clever you may be. I have seen householder devotees filled with spiritual emotion while performing their daily worship wearing their silk clothes. They maintain that attitude even until they take their refreshments after the worship. But afterwards they become their old selves again. They display their rajasic and tamasic natures.
"Sattva begets bhakti. Even bhakti has three aspects: sattva, rajas, and tamas. The sattva of bhakti is pure sattva. When a devotee acquires it he doesn't direct his mind to anything but God. He pays only as much attention to his body as is absolutely necessary for its protection.
"But a paramahamsa is beyond the three gunas. Though they exist in him, yet they are practically non-existent. Like a child, he is not under the control of any of the gunas.
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"Assume the tamasic aspect of bhakti. Say with force: 'What? I have uttered the names of Rma and Kali. How can I be in bondage any more? How can I be affected by the law of karma?' "
The Master sang:
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1.12 - God Departs, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
We could not say then that this change of mood had any connection with the disease. Not only with us, but with the Mother too, he became very reticent. However, with regard to his work, there was no flagging. Even when a little time was at our disposal and I was reluctant to bring out the numerous files containing the Savitri manuscript, just for half an hour, he would say, "We shall work a little." This provoked my other colleagues, particularly Champaklal, to an impish mirth, for they loved work and I did not, at least I did not then. And almost till his withdrawal the miscellaneous literary works and the labour on Savitri were carried on in full swing in spite of the discomfort caused by the gradual increase of the symptoms. In addition to these, when at this stage an importunate call came from an outside sadhika in Northern India to save her life from a dreaded and strange illness, he took great pains to cure her, especially as she was an intimate friend of an old sadhak who had made a desperate appeal to Sri Aurobindo's compassion. The story is rather long but intriguing. The doctors, as usual, differed about the diagnosis. Cancer, ulcer, T. B., none was found to be the case. One prominent symptom was profuse bleeding through the mouth but without any definite lesion of any organ. All kinds of tests and treatment failed. At last the patient gave up all treatment and said that she would depend entirely on Sri Aurobindo, even if she were to die. Sri Aurobindo then took up the responsibility at the supplication of the sadhak- bhakta, I believe, but on one condition that regular news must be supplied to him. The bhakta himself went from Pondicherry to the patient's place with a view to fulfil the condition. News began to stream in by letters, wires about her daily progress. Suddenly it stopped. Sri Aurobindo became anxious and enquired again and again if any news had come. I tried to plead on their behalf and give the usual excuses for the delay. At last he remarked, "How am I to save her if I have no news?" After two or three days, information began to flow in and very soon the patient recovered completely and came to settle in the Ashram. Her illness turned out to be a case of black magic. That is why the symptoms were erratic and there was no definite lesion in spite of their gravity. That was what probably made Sri Aurobindo so anxious about the case. We modern people may scoff at such unscientific superstition, but in this case, there was very solid ground in favour of such a belief. Though Sri Aurobindo took charge of the case, at each fresh arrival of news, he would ask me to keep the Mother informed. "Have you informed the Mother?" he would repeat. I did not understand why he was so insistent on the point; it was not his nature. Did he suspect that I might not, and I really felt no necessity, such was my human stupidity, trying to be wiser than the Guru! The reason for it became clear when he left the body. He had already taken the decision and wanted the Mother to know all about the case in anticipation of possible future developments.
The revision of Savitri was going on apace with regular unabated vigour. Book after Book was getting done and fascicules of them released for publication. Some 400-500 lines of The Book of Everlasting Day were dictated on successive days, since we could not spare more than an hour a day for the monumental work and that too had often to be cut short to meet other demands. We were, nevertheless, progressing quite steadily. I marvelled at the smooth spontaneous flow of verse after verse of remarkable beauty. Once I had complained to him in my correspondence why, having all the planes of inspiration at his command, should he still labour like us mortals at his Savitri.Why should not the inspiration burst out like the "champagne bottle"? Now I witnessed that miracle and imagined that it also must have been the way Valmiki composed his Ramayana. At this rate, I thought, Savitri would not take long to finish. On everyone's lips was the eager query, "How far are you with Savitri?"
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Before this, for four days, the disciples, the people of the town, Ashram employees had the unique Darshan and paid their homage. bhaktas had come from different parts of India for the benediction of the last Darshan of the Guru. Many of them felt the room surcharged with peace, force, light or bliss. Some saw Sn Aurobindo sitting on the bed and saying, "I am here, I am here!" as if to falsify Nature's decree. Dilip happened to be away. On receiving the news, he arrived posthaste and utterly broke down. The Mother tenderly consoled and assured him, "How can I not love someone whom Sri Aurobindo loved? What do you think we are here for? Only to please Sri Aurobindo." He told me, "You don't know, Nirod, what I have lost." Amal Kiran too was not there. He had just left on the night of 3rd December for Bombay after meeting the Mother. He flew back as soon as he got the news. He was in the Ashram on the morning of the 6th. He has written in his reminiscences entitled The Grace of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother:
"I who had depended so much on Sri Aurobindo in all my writing work when he had woken to inspiration the labouring poet, stirred to literary insight the fumbling critic, shaped out of absolute nothing the political commentator I who had almost every day despatched to him some piece of writing for consideration felt a void at the thought that he would not be in that room of his, listening so patiently to my poetry or prose and sending me by letter or telegram his precious guidance. A fellow-sadhak, Udar, spoke to the Mother about my plight. On December 12, the inmates of the Ashram met her again and each received from her hands a photograph of Sri Aurobindo taken after his passing. It was dusk, as far as I recollect. She must have seen a certain helplessness on my face. Smiling as she alone can do, she looked me in the eyes and said, 'Nothing has changed. Call for inspiration and help as you have always done. You will get everything from Sri Aurobindo as before.'"
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1.12 - The Divine Work, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
of the bhagavata Purana, "I desire not the supreme state with
all its eight siddhis nor the cessation of rebirth; may I assume
--
of the bhagavata, the passionate aspiration of Vivekananda. But
if we accept rather the view that the world is a divinely guided
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1.12 - THE FESTIVAL AT PNIHTI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
The Master had been invited to the festival by Mani Sen, who was the custodian of the temple. Ram, M., Rkhl , bhavanath, and a few other disciples went with the Master in a carriage. On his way to Pnihti Sri Ramakrishna was in a light mood and joked with the youngsters. But as soon as the carriage reached the place of the festival, the Master, to the utter amazement of' the devotees, shot into the crowd. He joined the kirtan party of Navadvip Goswami, Mani Sen's guru, and danced, totally forgetting the world. Every now and then he stood still in samdhi, carefully supported by Navadvip Goswami for fear he might fall to the ground. Thousands of devotees were gathered together for the festival. Wherever one looked there was a forest of human heads. The crowd seemed to become infected by the Master's divine fervour and swayed to and fro, chanting the name of God, until the very air seemed to reverberate with it. Drums, cymbals, and other instruments produced melodious sounds. The atmosphere became intense with spiritual fervour. The devotees felt that Gaurnga himself was being manifested in the person of Sri Ramakrishna. Flowers were showered from all sides on his feet and head. The shouting of the name of Hari was heard even at a distance, like the rumbling of the ocean.
Sri Ramakrishna entered by turn into all the moods of ecstasy. In deep samdhi he stood still, his face radiating a divine glow. In the state of partial consciousness he danced, sometimes gently and sometimes with the vigour of a lion. Again, regaining consciousness of the world, he sang, himself leading the chorus: Behold, the two brothers have come, who weep while chanting Hari's name,
--
Different states of bhakti
MASTER: " bhakti matured becomes bhava. Next is maha bhava, then prema, and last of all is the attainment of God. Gaurnga experienced the states of maha bhava and prema. When prema is awakened, a devotee completely forgets the world; he also forgets his body, which is so dear to a man. Gaurnga experienced prema. He jumped into the ocean, thinking it to be the Jamuna. The ordinary jiva does not experience maha bhava or prema. He goes only as far as bhava. But Gaurnga experienced all three states. Isn't that so?"
NAVADVIP: "Yes, sir, that is true. The inmost state, the semi-conscious state, and the conscious state."
--
Only for Thy bhaktas' sake dost Thou assume Thy various forms;
But when Thy devotee's five senses merge in the five elements, Mother, it is Thyself alone that he beholds as formless Truth.
--
MASTER: "According to some people, Sukadeva only saw and touched the Ocean of Brahman; he did not dive into It. That is why he could return to the world and impart religious instruction. According to others, he returned to the world of name and form, after attaining the Knowledge of Brahman, for the purpose of teaching others. He had to recite the bhagavata to King Parikshit and had to teach people in various ways; therefore God did not destroy his 'I' altogether. God kept in him the 'ego of Knowledge.'"
God and religious organization
--
MASTER: "I said to Keshab Sen that the 'I' that says, 'I am a leader, I have formed this party, I am teaching people', is the 'unripe I'. It is very difficult to preach religion. It is not possible to do so without receiving the commandment of God. The permission of God is necessary. Sukadeva had a comm and from God to recite the bhagavata. If, after realizing God, a man gets His comm and and becomes a preacher or teacher, then that preaching or teaching does no harm. His 'I' is not 'unripe'; it is 'ripe'.
"I asked Keshab to give up this 'unripe I'. The ego that feels, 'I am the servant of God and lover of God' does not injure one. I said to him: 'You have been constantly talking of your organization and your followers. But people also go away from your organization.' Keshab answered: 'It is true, sir. After staying in it several years, people go to another organization. What is worse, on deserting me they abuse me right and left.' 'Why don't you study their nature?' I said. 'Is there any good in making anybody and everybody a disciple?'
--
"One day when Keshab was here with his disciples, I said to him that I would like to hear him preach. He delivered a lecture in the chandni. Then we all sat by the bathing-ghat and had a long conversation. I said to him: 'It is bhagavan alone who in one form appears as bhakta, and in another as the bhagavata. Please repeat " bhagavata- bhakta- bhagavan".' Keshab and his disciples repeated the words. Then I asked him to repeat 'Guru-Krishna-Vaishnava'. Thereupon Keshab said: 'Sir, I should not go so far now.
People will say that I have become an orthodox Hindu.'
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1.12 - The Herds of the Dawn, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
"the Mother of the Herds, the guide of the days", gavam mata netr ahnam (VII.77.2). Finally, as if to remove the veil of the image entirely, the Veda itself tells us that the herds are a figure for the rays of the Light, "her happy rays come into sight like cows released into movement" - prati bhadra adr.ks.ata gavam sarga na rasmayah. (IV.52.5). And we have the still more conclusive verse, VII.79.2, "Thy cows (rays) remove the darkness and extend the Light"; sam te gavas tama a vartayanti, jyotir yacchanti.2
But Dawn is not only drawn by these shining herds; she brings them as a gift to the sacrificer; she is, like Indra in his
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1.12 - The Significance of Sacrifice, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
That this is the right interpretation results also from the opening of the eighth chapter where the universal principles are enumerated, aks.ara (brahma), sva bhava, karma, ks.ara bhava, purus.a, adhiyajna. Akshara is the immutable Brahman, spirit or self, Atman; swa bhava is the principle of the self, adhyatma, operative as the original nature of the being, "own way of becoming", and this proceeds out of the self, the Akshara; Karma proceeds from that and is the creative movement, visarga, which brings all natural beings and all changing subjective and objective shapes of being into existence; the result of
Karma therefore is all this mutable becoming, the changes of nature developed out of the original self-nature, ks.ara bhava out of sva bhava; Purusha is the soul, the divine element in the becoming, adhidaivata, by whose presence the workings of Karma become a sacrifice, yajna, to the Divine within; adhiyajna is this secret Divine who receives the sacrifice.
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1.12 - TIME AND ETERNITY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Whenever God is thought of as being wholly in time, there is a tendency to regard Him as a numinous rather than a moral being, a God of mere unmitigated Power rather than a God of Power, Wisdom and Love, an inscrutable and dangerous potentate to be propitiated by sacrifices, not a Spirit to be worshipped in spirit. All this is only natural; for time is a perpetual perishing and a God who is wholly in time is a God who destroys as fast as He creates. Nature is as incomprehensibly appalling as it is lovely and bountiful. If the Divine does not transcend the temporal order in which it is immanent, and if the human spirit does not transcend its time-bound soul, then there is no possibility of justifying the ways of God to man. God as manifested in the universe is the irresistible Being who speaks to Job out of the whirlwind, and whose emblems are Behemoth and Leviathan, the war horse and the eagle. It is this same Being who is described in the Apocalyptic eleventh chapter of the bhagavad Gita. O Supreme Spirit, says Arjuna, addressing himself to the Krishna whom he now knows to be the incarnation of the Godhead, I long to see your Isvara-form that is to say, his form as God of the world, Nature, the temporal order. Krishna answers, You shall behold the whole universe, with all things animate and inanimate, within this body of mine. Arjunas reaction to the revelation is one of amazement and fear.
Ah, my God, I see all gods within your body;
--
From the Srimad bhagavatam
His Sacred Majesty the King does reverence to men of all sects, whether ascetics or householders, by gifts and various forms of reverence. His Sacred Majesty, however, cares not so much for gifts or external reverence as that there should be a growth in the essence of the matter in all sects. The growth of the essence of the matter assumes various forms, but the root of it is restraint of speech, to wit, a man must not do reverence to his own sect or disparage that of another without reason. Depreciation should be for specific reasons only; for the sects of other people all deserve reverence for one reason or another. He who does reverence to his own sect, while disparaging the sects of others wholly from attachment to his own, with intent to enhance the glory of his own sect, in reality by such conduct inflicts the severest injury on his own sect. Concord therefore is meritorious, to wit, hearkening and hearkening willingly to the Law af Piety, as accepted by other people.
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1.13 - Conclusion - He is here, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
Again the unexpected! All of a sudden the curtain dropped on the divine drama that had been unrolled for twelve years. Who could have foreseen it? The Supreme Actor who had apparently been quite well and given darshan to the bhaktas on his birthday, August 15, as well as on November 24, most unexpectedly left the stage! When the news was announced on the radio, it came as a heart-rending to the devotees all over the world and just at a time when his name spelt a word of hope to aspiring humanity, as a Yogi, Rishi, poet, philosopher, lover of mankind and bringer of new Light. It was hard to believe and many rushed to Pondicherry by whatever means available to have the last darshan of the Sage.
It is now twenty-two years since he left us; His Birth Centenary in which the Government of India is taking a significant part as a modest recognition of Sri Aurobindo's greatness, is going to be observed all over India and in many parts of the world. Meanwhile the Supramental Manifestation has taken place and the Ashram in consequence has come to be regarded by the world as a spiritual institution from which a new Light is radiating upon earth. Politically, India is gaining a world-status and a serious obstacle to her greatness has been partially removed fulfilling his prophecy. We see then the purpose for which Sri Aurobindo took birth and the dreams he cherished and worked for are on their way to realisation. He did not come for a few individuals only, or for a single nation or race; he came for the transformation of earth-nature which had been abandoned to herself by God and man. God-men came to give some relief to the suffering humanity or to show it a door of escape from suffering, but none before Sri Aurobindo, the Supramental Avatar, accepting Matter as essentially Brahman, came to divinise it. When the work was going apace the curtain dropped, all of a sudden.
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1.13 - Dawn and the Truth, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
"encompassing the worlds immediately with horses yoked by the Truth," r.tayugbhir asvaih. (cf. VI.65.2) but he speaks of them as bhadra r.tajatasatyah., "happy, and true because born from the Truth"; and in another verse he describes them as "the goddesses who awake from the seat of the Truth."
This close connection of bhadra and r.ta reminds us of the same connection of ideas in Madhuchchhandas' Hymn to Agni.
In our psychological interpretation of the Veda we are met at every turn by the ancient conception of the Truth as the path to the Bliss. Usha, the dawn of the illumination of the Truth, must necessarily bring also the joy and the beatitude. This idea of the
--
As she has been described as the leader of the radiant herds and the leader of the days, so she is described as the luminous leader of happy truths, bhasvat netr sunr.tanam (I.92.7). And this close connection in the mind of the Vedic Rishis between the idea of light, of the rays or cows, and the idea of the truth is even more unmistakable in another Rik, I.92.14, gomati asvavati vi bhavari . . . sunr.tavati, "Dawn with thy shining herds, with thy steeds, widely luminous, full of happy truths." A similar but yet more open phrase in I.48.2 points the significance of this collocation of epithets, asvavatr gomatr visvasuvidah., "Dawns with their swiftnesses (horses), their radiances (herds), rightly knowing all things."
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1.13 - Posterity of Dhruva, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
The sons of Dhruva, by his wife Śambhu, were bhavya and Sliṣṭi. Succāyā, the wife of the latter, was the mother of five virtuous sons, Ripu, Ripuñjaya, Vipra, Vrikala, and Vrikatejas. The son of Ripu, by Vrihatī, was the illustrious Cakṣuṣa, who begot the Manu Cākṣuṣa on Puṣkariṇī, of the family of Varuṇa, the daughter of the venerable patriarch Anaraṇya. The Manu had, by his wife Navalā, the daughter of the patriarch Vairāja, ten noble sons, Uru, Pura, Satadyumna, Tapasvī, Satyavāk, Kavi, Agniṣṭoma, Atirātra, Sudyumna, and Abhimanyu. The wife of Uru, Āgneyī, bore six excellent sons, Anga, Sumanas, Svāti, Kratu, A
giras, and Śiva. Anga had, by his wife Sunīthā, only one son, named Veṇa, whose right arm was rubbed by the Ṛṣis, for the purpose of producing from it progeny. From the arm of Veṇa, thus rubbed, sprang a celebrated monarch, named Prithu, by whom, in olden time, the earth was milked for the advantage of mankind[1].
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1.13 - THE MASTER AND M., #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "However much a bhakta may experience physical joy and sorrow, he always has knowledge and the treasure of divine love. This treasure never leaves him. Take the Pandava brothers for instance. Though they suffered so many calamities, they did not lose their God-Consciousness even once. Where can you find men like them, endowed with so much knowledge and devotion?"
Just then Narendra and Colonel Viswanath Upadhyaya entered the room. Narendra was then twenty-two years old and studying in college. They saluted the Master and sat down. The Master requested Narendra to sing. The Tnpura hung on the west wall of the room. The devotees fixed their eyes on Narendra as he began to tune the drums.
--
Ideals of Jnni and bhakta
"The Jnni experiences God-Consciousness within himself; it is like the upper Ganges, flowing in only one direction. To him the whole universe is illusory, like a dream; he is always established in the Reality of Self. But with the lover of God the case is different.
--
Brahman and akti are not different "The Jnni seeks to realize Brahman. But the ideal of the bhakta is the Personal God-a God endowed with omnipotence and with the six treasures. Yet Brahman and akti are, in fact, not different. That which is the Blissful Mother is, again, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. They are like the gem and its lustre. When one speaks of the lustre of the gem, one thinks of the gem; and again, when one speaks of the gem, one refers to its lustre. One cannot conceive of the lustre of the gem without thinking of the gem, and one cannot conceive of the gem without thinking of its lustre.
"Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute is one, and one only. But It is associated with different limiting adjuncts on account of the different degrees of Its manifestation. That is why one finds various forms of God. The devotee sings, 'O my Divine Mother, Thou art all these!' Wherever you see actions, like creation, preservation, and dissolution, there is the manifestation of akti. Water is water whether it is calm or full of waves and bubbles. The Absolute alone is the Primordial Energy, which creates, preserves, and destroys. Thus it is the same 'Captain', whether he remains inactive or performs his worship or pays a visit to the Governor General. Only we designate him by different names at different times."
--
The Master returned to his room. After bowing to the Divine Mother, he clapped his hands and chanted the sweet names of God. A number of holy pictures hung on the walls of the room. Among others, there were pictures of Dhruva, Prahlada, Kli, Radha-Krishna, and the coronation of Rma. The Master bowed low before the pictures and repeated the holy names. Then he repeated the holy words, "Brahma-tm- bhagavan; bhagavata- bhakta- bhagavan; Brahma-akti, akti-Brahma; Veda, Purana, Tantra, Git, Gayatri." Then he said: "I have taken refuge at Thy feet, O Divine Mother; not I, but Thou. I am the machine and Thou art the Operator", and so on.
Master extols Narendra
While the Master was meditating in this fashion on the Divine Mother, a few devotees, coming in from the garden, gathered in his room. Sri Ramakrishna sat down on the small couch. He said to the devotees: "Narendra, bhavanath, Rkhl , and devotees like them belong to the group of the nityasiddhas; they are eternally free. Religious practice on their part is superfluous. Look at Narendra. He doesn't care about anyone. One day he was going with me in Captain's carriage. Captain wanted him to take a good seat, but Narendra didn't even look at him. He is independent even of me. He doesn't tell me all he knows, lest I should praise his scholarship before others. He is free from ignorance and delusion. He has no bonds. He is a great soul. He has many good qualities. He is expert in music, both as a singer and player, and is also a versatile scholar. Again, he keeps his passions under control and says that he will never marry.
There is a close friendship between Narendra and bhavanath; they are just like man and woman. Narendra doesn't come here very often. That is good, for I am overwhelmed by his presence."
Monday, August 20, 1883
--
Hazra was living at Dakshineswar. Rkhl lived with the Master, though now and then he stayed at Adhar's house. Narendra, bhavanath, Adhar, M., Ram, Manomohan, and other devotees visited the Master almost every week.
Hriday, Sri Ramakrishna's nephew, was ill in his home in the country. The Master was worried about him. One of the devotees had sent him a little money, but the Master did not know it.
--
"You must do 'this' as well as 'that'. Do your duties in the world, and also fix your mind on the Lotus Feet of the Lord. Read books of devotion like the bhagavata or the life of Chaitanya when you are alone and have nothing else to do."
It was about ten o'clock. Sri Ramakrishna finished a light supper of farina pudding and one or two luchis. After saluting him, M. and his friend took their leave.
--
MASTER: "He and His Power, Brahman and Its Power-nothing else exists but this. In a hymn to Rma, Nrada said: 'O Rma, You are iva, and Sita is bhagavati; You are Brahma, and Sita is Brahmani; You are Indra, and Sita is Indrani; You are Narayana, and Sita is Lakshmi. O Rma, You are the symbol of all that is masculine, and Sita of all that is feminine.' "
M: "Sir, what is the Spirit-form of God like?"
--
"Whatever we see or think about is the manifestation of the glory of the Primordial Energy, the Primal Consciousness. Creation, preservation, and destruction, living beings and the universe, and further, meditation and the meditator, bhakti and prema-all these are manifestations of the glory of that Power.
"But Brahman is identical with Its Power. On returning from Ceylon, Hanuman praised Rma, saying: 'O Rma, You are the Supreme Brahman, and Sita is Your akti. You and She are identical' Brahman and akti are like the snake and. its wriggling motion.
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1.14 - IMMORTALITY AND SURVIVAL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Srimad bhagavatam
Good men spiritualize their bodies; bad men incarnate their souls.
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1.14 - INSTRUCTION TO VAISHNAVS AND BRHMOS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Another day, in the bhaktas' procession,
Gora was sweetly singing the kirtan;
--
"The Incarnation of God is accepted by those who follow the path of bhakti. A woman belonging to the Karta bhaja sect observed my condition, and remarked: 'You have inner realization. Don't dance and sing too much. Ripe grapes must be preserved carefully in cotton. The mother-in-law lessens her daughter-in-law's activities when the daughter-in-law is with child. One characteristic of God-realization is that the activities of a man with such realization gradually drop away. Inside this man [meaning Sri Ramakrishna]
is the real Jewel.'
--
Oh, what a vision I have beheld in Keshab bharati's hut!
Gora, in all his matchless grace,
--
MASTER: "I feel very happy when I see Shivanath. He always seems to be absorbed in the bliss of bhakti. Further, a man who is respected by so many surely possesses some divine power. But he has one great defect: he doesn't keep his word. Once he said to me that, he would come to Dakshineswar, but he neither came nor sent me word. That is not good. It is said that truthfulness alone constitutes the spiritual discipline of the Kaliyuga. If a man clings tenaciously to truth he ultimately realizes God. Without this regard for truth, one gradually loses everything. If by chance I say that I will go to the pine-grove, I must go there even if there is no further need of it, lest I lose my attachment to truth. After my vision of the Divine Mother, I prayed to Her, taking a flower in my hands: 'Mother, here is Thy knowledge and here is Thy ignorance. Take them both, and give me only pure love. Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy unholiness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy good and here is Thy evil. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy righteousness, and here is Thy unrighteousness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love.' I mentioned all these, but I could not say: 'Mother, here is Thy truth and here is Thy falsehood. Take them both.' I gave up everything at Her feet but could not bring myself to give up truth."
Soon the service began according to the rules of the Brahmo Samaj. The preacher was seated on the dais. After the opening prayer he recited holy texts of the Vedas and was joined by the congregation in the invocation to the Supreme Brahman. They chanted in chorus: "Brahman is Truth, Knowledge, and Infinity. It shines as Bliss and Immortality.
--
"It is narrated in the bhagavata that the Avadhuta had twenty-four gurus, one of whom was a kite. In a certain place the fishermen were catching fish. A kite swooped down and snatched a fish. At the sight of the fish, about a thousand crows chased the kite and made a great noise with their cawing. Whichever way the kite flew with the fish, the crows followed it. The kite flew to the south and the crows followed it there. The kite flew to the north and still the crows followed after it. The kite went east and west, but with the same result. As the kite began to fly about in confusion, lo, the fish dropped from its mouth. The crows at once let the kite alone and flew after the fish. Thus relieved of its worries, the kite sat on the branch of a tree and thought: 'That wretched fish was at the root of all my troubles. I have now got rid of it and therefore I am at peace.'
"The Avadhuta learnt this lesson from the kite, that as long as a man has the fish, that is, worldly desires, he must perform actions and consequently suffer from worry, anxiety, and restlessness. No sooner does he renounce these desires than his activities fall away and he enjoys peace of soul.
--
Steps of bhakti
"First of all one acquires bhakti. bhakti is single-minded devotion to God, like the devotion a wife feels for her husband. It is very difficult to have unalloyed devotion to God. Through such devotion one's mind and soul merge in Him.
"Then comes bhava, intense love. Through bhava a man becomes speechless. His nerve currents are stilled. Kum bhaka comes by itself. It is like the case of a man whose breath and speech stop when he fires a gun.
"But prema, ecstatic love, is an extremely rare thing. Chaitanya had that love. When one has prema one forgets all outer things. One forgets the world. One even forgets one's own body, which is so dear to a man."
--
Sri Ramakrishna had said that bhava stills the nerve currents of the devotee. He continued: "When Arjuna was about to shoot at the target, the eye of a fish, his eyes were fixed on the eye of the fish, and on nothing else. He didn't even notice any part of the fish except the eye. In such a state the breathing stops and one experiences kum bhaka.
"Another characteristic of God-vision is that a great spiritual current rushes up along the spine and goes toward the brain. If then the devotee goes into samdhi, he sees God."
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1.1.4 - The Physical Mind and Sadhana, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is the usual fit and the same round of thoughts mechanically repeated that you always get in these fits. These thoughts have no light in them and no truth, for the physical mind which engenders this routine wheel of suggestions is shut up in surface appearances and knows nothing of deeper truth or the things of the spirit. There is plenty of increment, but with this superficial part of the physical mind it is not likely or possible that you can see it. Your impression of the dwindling light is also an impression of this mind natural to it especially in its periods of darkness; for that matter when the periods of darkness come to any sadhak they always seem darker than before; that is the nature of the darkness, to give that impression always. It is also quite according to the rule of these reactions that it should have come immediately after a considerable progress in bhakti and the will to surrender in the inner being for it comes from the spirit of darkness which attacks the sadhak whenever it can, and that spirit resents fiercely all progress made and hates the very idea of progress and its whole policy is to convince him by its attacks and suggestions that he has made none or that what progress he has made is after all null and inconclusive.
The laws of this world as it is are the laws of the Ignorance and the Divine in the world maintains them so long as there is the Ignoranceif He did not, the universe would crumble to pieces, utsdeyur ime lok, as the Gita puts it. There are also, very naturally, conditions for getting out of the Ignorance into the Light. One of them is that the mind of the sadhak should cooperate with the Truth and that his will should cooperate with the Divine Power which, however slow its action may seem to the vital or to the physical mind, is uplifting the nature towards the Light. When that cooperation is complete, then the progress can be rapid enough; but the sadhak should not grudge the time and labour needed to make that cooperation fully possible to the blindness and weakness of human nature and effective.
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1.15 - The Possibility and Purpose of Avatarhood, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yoga in its most physical sense, - there is another significance in which it can be taken, - and asks how the Sun-God, one of the first-born of beings, ancestor of the Solar dynasty, can have received the Yoga from the man Krishna who is only now born into the world. Krishna does not reply, as we might have expected him to have done, that it was as the Divine who is the source of all knowledge that he gave the Word to the Deva who is his form of knowledge, giver of all inner and outer light, - bhargah. savitur devasya yo no dhiyah. pracodayat; he accepts instead the opportunity which Arjuna gives him of declaring his concealed Godhead, a declaration for which he had prepared when he gave himself as the divine example for the worker who is not bound by his works, but which he has not yet quite explicitly made. He now openly announces himself as the incarnate
Godhead, the Avatar.
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1.15 - The world overrun with trees; they are destroyed by the Pracetasas, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
The daughters of Dakṣa who were married to Kaśyapa were Aditi, Diti, Danu, Aṛṣṭā, Surasā, Surabhi, Vinatā, Tāmrā, Krodhavaśā, Iḍā, Khasā, Kadru, and Muni[19]; whose progeny I will describe to you. There were twelve celebrated deities in a former Manvantara, called Tuṣitas[20], who, upon the approach of the present period, or in the reign of the last Manu, Cākṣuṣa, assembled, and said to one another, "Come, let us quickly enter into the womb of Aditī, that we may be born in the next Manvantara, for thereby we shall again enjoy the rank of gods:" and accordingly they were born the sons of Kaśyapa, the son of Marīci, by Aditī, the daughter of Dakṣa; thence named the twelve Ādityas; whose appellations were respectively, Viṣṇu, Śakra, Āryaman, Dhūtī, Tvāṣṭri, Pūṣan, Vivaswat, Savitri, Mitra, Varuṇa, Aṃśa, and bhaga[21]. These, who in the Cākṣuṣa Manvantara were the gods called Tuṣitas, were called the twelve Ādityas in the Manvantara of Vaivaśvata.
The twenty-seven daughters of the patriarch who became the virtuous wives of the moon were all known as the nymphs of the lunar constellations, which were called by their names, and had children who were brilliant through their great splendour[22]. The wives of Aṛṣṭanemi bore him sixteen children[23]. The daughters of Bahuputra were the four lightnings[24]. The excellent Pratya
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[14]: The Sādhyas, according to the Vāyu, are the personified rites and prayers of the Vedas, born of the metres, and partakers of the sacrifices. The same work names twelve, which are all names of sacrifices and formulæ, as Darśa, Paurnamāsa, Vrihadaśva, Rathantara, &c. The Matsya P., Padma P., and Hari V. have a different set of seventeen appellations, apparently of arbitrary selection, as bhava, Pra bhava, Īśa, Aruṇi, &c.
[15]: Or, according to the Padma P., because they are always present in light, or luminous irradiation.
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1.1.5 - Thought and Knowledge, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
To turn all actions automatically into worship cannot be done by thought control only; there must be a strong aspiration in the heart which will bring about some realisation or feeling of the presence of the One to whom worship is offered. The bhakta does not rely on his own effort alone, but on the grace and power of the Divine whom he adores.
***
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1.16 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"The Vedantists do not accept hathayoga. There is also rajayoga. Rajayoga describes how to achieve union with God through the mind by means of discrimination and bhakti.
This yoga is good. Hathayoga is not good. The life of a man in the Kaliyuga is dependent on food."
--
Ater a time Sri Ramakrishna asked M. to read from the bhaktamala, a book about the Vaishnava saints.
Story of a Vaishnava devotee
--
Oh, what a vision I have beheld in Keshab bharati's hut!
Gora, in all his matchless grace,
--
M. had been staying at Dakshineswar with Sri Ramakrishna. The Master was sitting in his room, listening to the life of Prahlada, which Ramlal was reading from the bhaktamala. M. was sitting on the floor. Rkhl, Ltu, and Harish were also in the room, and Hazra was on the verandah. While listening to the story of Prahlada's love for God, Sri Ramakrishna went into an ecstatic mood.
Hiranyakasipu, the king of the demons and father of Prahlada, had put his son to endless torture to divert the boy's mind from the love of God. But through divine grace all the king's attempts to kill Prahlada were ineffective. At last God appeared, assuming the form of Nrisimha, the Manlion, and killed Hiranyakasipu. The gods were frightened at the rage and roaring of the Manlion and thought that the destruction of the world was imminent.
--
MASTER: "The whole thing, in a nutshell is that one must develop ecstatic love for Satchidananda. What kind of love? How should one love God? Gauri used to say that one must become like Sita to understand Rma; like bhagavati, the Divine Mother, to understand bhagavan, iva. One must practise austerity, as bhagavati did, in order to attain iva. One must cultivate the attitude of Prakriti in order to realize Purusha-the attitude of a friend, a handmaid, or a mother.
"I saw Sita in a vision. I found that her entire mind was concentrated on Rma. She was totally indifferent to everything-her hands, her feet, her clothes, her jewels. It seemed that Rma had filled every bit of her life and she could not remain alive without Rma."
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1.17 - God, #Initiation Into Hermetics, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
The pure mystic wishes to approach his God only in the all-embracing love. The yogi, too, walks toward one single aspect of God. The bhakti- yogi keeps to the road of love and devotion, the raja and hatha yogi choose the path of self-control or volition, the jnana yogi will follow that of wisdom and cognition.
Now let us regard the idea of God from the magic standpoint, according to the four elements, the so-called tetragrammaton, the unspeakable, the supreme: the fiery principle involves the almightiness and the omnipotence, the airy principle owns the wisdom, purity and clarity, from which aspect proceeds the universal lawfulness.
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1.17 - M. AT DAKSHINEWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
M: "Isn't it possible to develop both jnna and bhakti by the practice of spiritual discipline?"
MASTER: "Through the path of bhakti a man may attain them both. If it is necessary, God gives him the Knowledge of Brahman. But a highly qualified aspirant may develop both jnna and bhakti at the same time. Such is the case with the Isvarakotis-Chaitanya for example. But the case of ordinary devotees is different.
"There are five kinds of light: the light of a lamp, the light of various kinds of fire, the light of the moon, the light of the sun, and lastly the combined light of the sun and the moon. bhakti is the light of the moon, and jnna the light of the sun.
"Sometimes it is seen that the sun has hardly set when the moon rises in the sky. In an Incarnation of God one sees, at the same time, the sun of Knowledge and the moon of Love.
--
Through the grace of God some may get both jnna and bhakti."
M. saluted the Master and went back to the bel-tree.
--
"One should not discuss the discipline of the Impersonal God or the path of knowledge with a bhakta. Through great effort perhaps he is just cultivating a little devotion. You will injure it if you explain away everything as a mere dream.
"Kabir was a worshipper of the Impersonal God. He did not believe in iva, Kli, or Krishna. He used to make fun of them and say that Kli lived on the offerings of rice and banana, and that Krishna danced like a monkey when the gopis clapped their hands. ( All laugh).
--
In the afternoon bhavanath arrived. Rkhl , M., Harish, and other devotees were in the room.
MASTER ( to bhavanath): "To love an Incarnation of God-that is enough. Ah, what ecstatic love the gopis had for Krishna!"
Sri Ramakrishna began to sing, asuming the attitude of the gopis:
--
"The rishis once said to Rma: 'O Rma, sages like bharadvaja may very well call you an Incarnation of God, but we cannot do that. We adore the Word-Brahman. 3 We do not want the human form of God.' Rma smiled and went away, pleased with their adoration.
Different manifestations of the Absolute
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as Isvara, as the gods, as man, and as the universe. The Incarnation is the play of the Absolute as man. Do you know how the Absolute plays as man? It is like the rushing down of water from a big roof through a pipe; the power of Satchidananda-nay, Satchidananda Itself-descends through the conduit of a human form as water descends through the pipe. Only twelve sages, bharadvaja and the others, recognized Rma as an Incarnation of God. Not everyone can recognize an Incarnation.
"It is God alone who incarnates Himself as man to teach people the ways of love and knowledge. Well, what do you think of me?
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"I recognized you on hearing you read the Chaitanya bhagavat. You are my own.
The same substance, like father and son. All of you are coming here again. When you pull one part of the kalmi creeper, all the branches come toward you. You are all relatives-like brothers. Suppose Rkhl, Harish, and the others had gone to Puri, and you were there too. Would you live separately?
--
MASTER:"Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna are the three principal nerves. All the lotuses are located in the Sushumna. They are formed of Consciousness, like a tree made of wax-the branches, twigs, fruits, and so forth all of wax. The Kundalini lies in the lotus of the Muladhara. That lotus has four petals. The Primordial Energy resides in all bodies as the Kundalini. She is like a sleeping snake coiled up-'of the form of a sleeping snake, having the Muladhara for Her abode'. (To M.) The Kundalini is speedily awakened if one follows the path of bhakti. God cannot be seen unless She is awakened. Sing earnestly and secretly in solitude:
Waken, O Mother! O Kundalini, whose nature is Bliss Eternal!
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1.17 - The Divine Birth and Divine Works, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
These three are always the necessary elements of the work of the Avatar. He gives a dharma, a law of self-discipline by which to grow out of the lower into the higher life and which necessarily includes a rule of action and of relations with our fellowmen and other beings, endeavour in the eightfold path or the law of faith, love and purity or any other such revelation of the nature of the divine in life. Then because every tendency in man has its collective as well as its individual aspect, because those who follow one way are naturally drawn together into spiritual companionship and unity, he establishes the sangha, the fellowship and union of those whom his personality and his teaching unite. In Vaishnavism there is the same trio, bhagavata, bhakta, bhagavan, - the bhagavata, which is the law of the Vaishnava dispensation of adoration and love, the bhakta representing the fellowship of those in whom that law is manifest, bhagavan, the divine Lover and
Beloved in whose being and nature the divine law of love is founded and fulfils itself. The Avatar represents this third element, the divine personality, nature and being who is the soul of the dharma and the sangha, informs them with himself, keeps them living and draws men towards the felicity and the liberation.
--
of their human wills and the strife of their human fear, wrath and passion, and liberated from all this unquiet and suffering may live in the calm and bliss of the Divine.2 Nor does it matter essentially in what form and name or putting forward what aspect of the Divine he comes; for in all ways, varying with their nature, men are following the path set to them by the Divine which will in the end lead them to him and the aspect of him which suits their nature is that which they can best follow when he comes to lead them; in whatever way men accept, love and take joy in God, in that way God accepts, loves and takes joy in man. Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamyaham.
2 janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah,
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1.17 - The Seven-Headed Thought, Swar and the Dashagwas, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
That the making visible of Swar to the eyes of the Swarseers, svardr.sah., their drinking of the honeyed well and their outpouring of the divine waters amounts to the revelation to man of new worlds or new states of existence is clearly told us in the next verse, II.24.5, sana ta ka cid bhuvana bhavtva, madbhih. saradbhir duro varanta vah.; ayatanta carato anyad anyad id, ya cakara vayuna brahman.aspatih., "Certain eternal worlds (states of existence) are these which have to come into being, their doors are shut5 to you (or, opened) by the months and the years; without effort one (world) moves in the other, and it is these that Brahmanaspati has made manifest to knowledge"; vayuna means knowledge, and the two forms are divinised earth and heaven which Brahmanaspati created.
These are the four eternal worlds hidden in the guha, the secret, unmanifest or superconscient parts of being which although in themselves eternally present states of existence (sana bhuvana) are for us non-existent and in the future; for us they have to be brought into being, bhavtva, they are yet to be created. Therefore the Veda sometimes speaks of Swar being made visible, as here (vyacaks.ayat svah.), or discovered and taken possession of, vidat, sanat, sometimes of its being created or made (bhu, kr.). These secret eternal worlds have been closed to us, says the
Rishi, by the movement of Time, by the months and years; therefore naturally they have to be discovered, revealed, conquered,
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1.18 - Hiranyakasipu's reiterated attempts to destroy his son, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
[1]: This is not the doctrine of the impassibility of soul, taught in the Vedas: 'We do not recognise either the doctrine that supposes the slayer to slay, or the slain to be killed; this (spiritual existence) neither kills nor is killed.' The same is iñculcated at great length, and with great beauty, in the bhagavat Gītā: 'Weapons wound it not; fire doth not p. 136 consume it; water cannot drown it; nor doth it wither before the winds:' or, as rendered by Schlegel, 'Non ilium penetrant tela; non ilium comburit flamma; neque illum perfundunt aquæ; nec ventus exsiccat.' P. 17. new edition. But in the passage of our text, all that the Hindus understand of Fate, is referred to. Death or immunity, prosperity or adversity, are in this life the inevitable consequences of conduct in a prior existence: no man can suffer a penalty which his vices in a preceding state of being have not iñcurred, nor can he avoid it if they have.
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1.18 - M. AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "Well, what suits your taste-God with form or the formless Reality? But to tell you the truth, He who is formless is also endowed with form. To His bhaktas He reveals Himself as having a form. It is like a great ocean, an infinite expanse of water, without any trace of shore. Here and there some of the water has been frozen. Intense cold has turned it into ice. Just so, under the cooling influence, so to speak, of the bhakta's love, the Infinite appears to take a form. Again, the ice melts when the sun rises; it becomes water as before. Just so, one who follows the path of knowledge -the path of discrimination-does not see the form of God any more. To him everything is formless.
The ice melts into formless water with the rise of the Sun of Knowledge. But mark this: form and formlessness belong to one and the same Reality."
--
MASTER (to Jaygopal): "One should not harbour malice toward any person or any opinion. The believers in the formless God and the worshippers of God with form are all, without exception, going toward God alone. The Jnni, the yogi, the bhakta-all, without exception, are seeking Him alone. The follower of the path of knowledge calls Him 'Brahman'. The yogi calls Him 'tman' or 'Paramatman'. The bhakta calls Him ' bhagavan'. Further, it is said that there is the Eternal Lord and His Eternal Servant."
JAYGOPAL: "How can we know that all paths are true?"
--
MASTER: "Everything can be achieved through bhakti alone. Those who want the Knowledge of Brahman will certainly achieve that also by following the trail of bhakti.
"Can a man blessed with the grace of God ever lack Knowledge? At Kamarpukur I have seen grain-dealers measuring paddy. As one heap is measured away another heap is pushed forward to be measured. The Mother supplies the devotees with the 'heap' of Knowledge. .
--
"Everything can be realized simply through love of God. If one is able to love God, one does not lack anything. Kartika and Ganesa were seated near bhagavati, who had a necklace of gems around Her neck. The Divine Mother said to them, 'I will present this necklace to him who is the first to go around the universe.' Thereupon Kartika, without losing a moment, set out on the peacock, his carrier. Ganesa, on the other hand, in a leisurely fashion went around the Divine Mother and prostrated himself before Her. He knew that She contained within Herself the entire universe. The Divine Mother was pleased with him and put the necklace around his neck. After a long while Kartika returned and found his brother seated there with the necklace on.
The Master's visions
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Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge' in order to teach mankind. The gift of knowledge and devotion is far superior to the gift of food. Therefore Chaitanyadeva distributed bhakti to all, including the outcaste. Happiness and suffering are the inevitable characteristics of the body. You have come to eat mangoes. Fulfil that desire. The one thing needful is jnna and bhakti. God alone is Substance; all else is illusory.
"It is God alone who does everything. You may say that in that case man may commit sin. But that is not true. If a man is firmly convinced that God alone is the Doer and that he himself is nothing, then he will never make a false step.
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1.18 - The Human Fathers, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Earth," sanema mitravarun.a sananto, bhavema dyavapr.thiv bhavantah.. This is evidently the sense that we are to possess and become the infinities or children of Aditi, the godheads,
190
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1.19 - Equality, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
'mr.tam asnute. The tamasic unwillingness to accept the pain and effort of life is indeed by itself a weakening and degrading thing, and in this lies the danger of preaching to all alike the gospel of asceticism and world-disgust, that it puts the stamp of a tamasic weakness and shrinking on unfit souls, confuses their understanding, buddhibhedam janayet, diminishes the sustained aspiration, the confidence in living, the power of effort which the soul of man needs for its salutary, its necessary rajasic struggle to master its environment, without really opening to it - for it is yet incapable of that - a higher goal, a greater endeavour, a mightier victory. But in souls that are fit this tamasic recoil may serve a useful spiritual purpose by slaying their rajasic attraction, their eager preoccupation with the lower life which prevents the sattwic awakening to a higher possibility. Seeking then for a refuge in the void they have created, they are able to hear the divine call, "O soul that findest thyself in this transient and unhappy world, turn and put thy delight in Me," anityam asukham lokam imam prapya bhajasva mam.
Still, in this movement, the equality consists only in an equal recoil from all that constitutes the world; and it arrives at indifference and aloofness, but does not include that power to
--
God in the world. For he is a bhakta, a lover and devotee of the Divine, as well as a sage and a Yogin, a lover who loves
God wherever he finds Him and who finds Him everywhere; and what he loves, he does not disdain to serve, nor does action carry him away from the bliss of union, since all his acts proceed from the One in him and to the One in all they are directed. The equality of the Gita is a large synthetic equality in which all is lifted up into the integrality of the divine being and the divine nature.
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1.19 - THE MASTER AND HIS INJURED ARM, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"The Mother has kept me in the state of a bhakta, a vijnni. That is why I joke with Rkhl and the others. Had I been in the condition of a Jnni I couldn't do that.
"In this state I realize that it is the Mother alone who has become everything. I see Her everywhere. In the Kli temple I found that the Mother Herself had become everything-even the wicked, even the brother of bhagavat Pundit.
"Once I was about to scold Ramlal's mother, but I had to restrain myself. I saw her to be a form of the Divine Mother. I worship virgins because I see in them the Divine Mother. My wife strokes my feet, but I salute her afterwards.
--
"Without desires the body cannot live. (Smiling) I had one or two desires. I prayed to the Mother, 'O Mother, give me the company of those who have renounced "woman and gold".' I said further: 'I should like to enjoy the society of Thy jnanis and bhaktas. So give me a little strength that I may walk hither and thither and visit those people.' But She did not give me the strength to walk."
TRAlLOKYA (smiling): "Have all the desires been fulfilled?"
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"Why then do I take care of the body? It is to enjoy God, to sing His name and glories, and to go about visiting His jnanis and bhaktas."
Master's sympathy for Narendra's suffering
--
O Thou who stealest Thy bhaktas' hearts,
Drown me deep in the Sea of Thy love!
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1.19 - The Victory of the Fathers, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
all enjoy godhead attaining to the truth and the immortality by their movements, bhajanta visve devatvam nama, r.tam sapanto amr.tam evaih.. The impulse of the Truth, the thinking of the
Truth becomes a universal life (or pervades all the life), and in it all fulfil their workings," r.tasya pres.a r.tasya dhtir, visvayur visve apamsi cakruh..
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1.200-1.224 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
The bhagavad Gita says: The unreal hath no being; the real never ceaseth to be; the truth about both hath been perceived by the seers of the essence of things. The real is ever real, the unreal is ever unreal. Again: He is not born, nor doth he die; nor, having been, ceaseth he anymore to be; unborn, perpetual, eternal ancient, he is not slain when the body is slaughtered. Accordingly, there is neither birth nor death. Waking is birth and sleep is death.
Was the wife with you when you went out to the office, or in your deep sleep? She was away from you. You were satisfied because of your thought that she was somewhere. Whereas now you think that she is not. The difference lies in the different thoughts. That is the cause of pain. The pain is because of the thought of the wifes nonbeing. All this is the mischief of the mind. The fellow (i.e. the mind) creates pain for himself even when there is pleasure. But pleasure and pain are mental creations.
--
Maharshi was reading G. U. Popes translation of Tiruvachakam and came across the stanzas describing the intense feeling of bhakti as thrilling the whole frame, melting the flesh and bones, etc. He remarked: Manickavasagar is one of those whose body finally resolved itself in a blazing light, without leaving a corpse behind.
Another devotee asked how it could be.
--
Mr. A. Bose, an engineer from Bombay, asked: Does bhagavan feel for us and show grace?
M.: You are neck-deep in water and yet cry for water. It is as good as saying that one neck-deep in water feels thirsty, or a fish in water feels thirsty, or that water feels thirsty.
--
Again Sri bhagavan recounts the anecdote of Parvati testing Rama.
The story is as follows:
--
He therefore seeks Sri bhagavans guidance for freedom from mental unhappiness which persists in spite of his not being indebted.
M.: Which text of Upadesa Sara did you read?
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1.2.01 - The Call and the Capacity, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Divine, through whatever lever, heart or mind, or both. In your case it is likely to come through the heart, through increase of bhakti or psychic purification of the heart: that is why I was pressing the psychic way upon you. I do not mean that nothing can come through meditation for you, but probably - barring the unexpected - only after the heart-experience.
Do not allow these wrong ideas and feelings to govern you or your state of depression to dictate your decisions: try to keep a firm central will for the realisation - you can do so if you make up your mind to it - these things are not impossible for you; they are within the scope of your nature which is strong.
--
I repeat what I said before (though your physical mind does not yet believe) that these experiences show at once that your inner being is a Yogi capable of trance, ecstasy, intensest bhakti, fully aware of Yoga and Yoga consciousness, and showing himself the very moment you get inside yourself, even as the outer man is very much the other way round, modernised, externalised, vigorously outward-vital (for the Yogi is inward-vital and psychic) and knowing nothing of Yoga or the world of inner experience.
I could see at once when I saw you that there was this inner
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1.2.04 - Sincerity, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is difficult for the ordinary Christian to be of a piece, because the teachings of Christ are on quite another plane from the consciousness of the intellectual and vital man trained by the education and society of Europe - the latter, even as a minister or priest, has never been called upon to practise what he preached in entire earnest. But it is difficult for the human nature anywhere to think, feel and act from one centre of true faith, belief or vision. The average Hindu considers the spiritual life the highest, reveres the Sannyasi, is moved by the bhakta; but if one of the family circle leaves the world for spiritual life, what tears, arguments, remonstrances, lamentations! It is almost worse than if he had died a natural death. It is not conscious mental insincerity - they will argue like Pandits and go to Shastra to prove you in the wrong; it is unconsciousness, a vital insincerity which
Letters on Yoga - II
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1.2.07 - Surrender, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It [surrender] cannot be absolutely complete in the beginning, but it can be true - if the central will is sincere and there is the faith and the bhakti. There may be contrary movements, but these will be unable to stand for long and the imperfection of the surrender in the lower part will not seriously interfere with the power and pervasiveness of the inner attitude.
A complete surrender is not possible in so short a time, - for a complete surrender means to cut the knot of the ego in each part of the being and offer it, free and whole, to the Divine.
--
Surrender and bhakti
Surrender and love- bhakti are not contrary things - they go together. It is true that at first surrender can be made through knowledge by the mind, but it implies a mental bhakti and, as soon as the surrender reaches the heart, the bhakti manifests as a feeling and with the feeling of bhakti love comes.
Self-surrender at first comes through love and bhakti, more than through Atmajnana. But it is true that with Atmajnana the complete surrender becomes more possible.
Surrender and the Brahmic Condition
--
Tapasya. Not only so, but in fact a double process of Tapasya and increasing surrender persists for a long time even when the surrender has fairly well begun. But a time comes when one feels the Presence and the Force constantly and more and more feels that that is doing everything - so that the worst difficulties cannot disturb this sense and personal effort is no longer necessary, hardly even possible. That is the sign of the full surrender of the nature into the hands of the Divine. There are some who take this position in faith even before there is this experience and if the bhakti and the faith are strong it carries them through till the experience is there. But all cannot take this position from the beginning - and for some it would be dangerous since they might put themselves into the hand of a wrong Force thinking it to be the Divine. For most it is necessary to grow through
Tapasya into surrender.
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1.2.08 - Faith, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
I am rather surprised at Krishnaprem's surprise about my statement of faith. I thought he had said once you should not hanker after experiences. As for experience being necessary for faith and no faith possible without it, that contradicts human psychology altogether. Thousands of people have faith before they have experience and it is the faith that helps them to the experience. The doctrine "No belief without proof" applies to physical science, it would be disastrous in the field of spirituality - or for that matter in the field of human action. The saints or bhaktas have the faith in God long before they get the experience of God - the man of action has the faith in his cause long before his cause is crowned with success - otherwise they would not have been able to struggle persistently towards their end in spite of defeat,
Faith
--
Divine, and that too is the condition of bhakti.
The Gospel of Faith
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1.20 - Equality and Knowledge, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
God, but, eventually at least, of such a complete renunciation both of the consciousness and the works to him that our being becomes one with his being and the impersonalised nature only an instrument and nothing else. All result good or bad, pleasing or unpleasing, fortunate or unfortunate, is accepted as belonging to the Master of our actions, so that finally not only are grief and suffering borne, but they are banished: a perfect equality of the emotional mind is established. There is no assumption of personal will in the instrument; it is seen that all is already worked out in the omniscient prescience and omnipotent effective power of the universal Divine and that the egoism of men cannot alter the workings of that Will. Therefore, the final attitude is that enjoined on Arjuna in a later chapter, "All has been already done by Me in my divine will and foresight; become only the occasion, O Arjuna," nimitta-matram bhava savyasacin. This attitude must lead finally to an absolute union of the personal with the Divine Will and, with the growth of knowledge, bring about a faultless response of the instrument to the divine Power and Knowledge. A perfect, an absolute equality of self-surrender, the mentality a passive channel of the divine Light and Power, the active being a mightily effective instrument for its work in the world, will be the poise of this supreme union of the
Transcendent, the universal and the individual.
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1.20 - RULES FOR HOUSEHOLDERS AND MONKS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Among them were Mani Mallick, Mahendra Kaviraj, Balarm, M., bhavanath, Rkhl, Ltu, and Harish. The Master's injured arm was in a splint. In spite of the injury he was constantly absorbed in samdhi or instructing the devotees.
Mani Mallick and bhavanath referred to the exhibition which was then being held near the Asiatic Museum. They said: "Many maharajas have sent precious articles to the exhibition-gold couches and the like. It is worth seeing."
MASTER (to the devotees, with a smile): "Yes, you gain much by visiting those things.
--
"How guileless bhavanath is! After his marriage he came to me and asked, 'Why do I feel so much love for my wife?' Alas, he is so guileless!
"Isn't it natural for a man to love his wife? This is due to the world bewitching my of the Divine Mother of the Universe. A man feels about his wife that he has no one else in the world so near and dear; that she is his very own in life and death, here and hereafter.
--
MASTER (to bhavanath): "Those are good pictures. Go to his house and see them."
The Master remained silent a few minutes.
--
MASTER (to bhagavan Das): "The Eternal Religion, the religion of the rishis, has been in existence from time out of mind and will exist eternally. There exist in this Sanatana Dharma all forms of worship-worship of God with form and worship of the Impersonal Deity as well. It contains all paths-the path of knowledge, the path of devotion, and so on. Other forms of religion, the modern cults, will remain for a few days and then disappear."
March 23, 1884
--
"What a nice state of mind Captain has developed! He looks like a rishi when he is seated to perform worship. He performs the rati with lighted camphor and recites beautiful hymns. When he rises from his seat after finishing the worship, his eyes are swollen from emotion, as if bitten by ants. Besides, he always devotes himself to the study of the sacred books, such as the Git and the bhagavata. Once I used one or two English words before him, and that made him angry. He said, 'English-educated people are profane.' "
After a while Adhar said humbly to the Master: "Sir, you haven't been to our place for a long time. The drawing-room smells worldly and everything else appears to be steeped in darkness."
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1.20 - The Hound of Heaven, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
"Come now, today let us become perfected in thought, let us destroy suffering and unease, let us embrace the higher good," eto nu adya sudhyo bhavama, pra ducchuna minavama a varyah.;
"far from us let us put always all hostile things (all the things
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1.20 - Visnu appears to Prahlada, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
Whilst with mind intent on Viṣṇu, he thus pronounced his praises, the divinity, clad in yellow robes, suddenly appeared before him. Startled at the sight, with hesitating speech Prahlāda pronounced repeated salutations to Viṣṇu, and said, "Oh thou who removest all worldly grief, Keśava, be propitious unto me; again sanctify me, Achyuta, by thy sight." The deity replied, "I am pleased with the faithful attachment thou hast shown to me: demand from me, Prahlāda, whatever thou desirest." Prahlāda replied, "In all the thousand births through which I may be doomed to pass, may my faith in thee, Achyuta, never know decay; may passion, as fixed as that which the worldly-minded feel for sensual pleasures, ever animate my heart, always devoted unto thee." bhagavān answered, "Thou hast already devotion unto me, and ever shalt have it: now choose some boon, whatever is in thy wish." Prahlāda then said, "I have been hated, for that I assiduously proclaimed thy praise: do thou, oh lord, pardon in my father this sin that he Bath committed. Weapons have been hurled against me; I have been thrown into the flames; I have been bitten by venomous snakes; and poison has been mixed with my food; I have been bound and cast into the sea; and heavy rocks have been heaped upon me: but all this, and whatever ill beside has been wrought against me; whatever wickedness has been done to me, because I put my faith in thee; all, through thy mercy, has been suffered by me unharmed: and do thou therefore free my father from this iniquity." To this application Viṣṇu replied, "All this shall be unto thee, through my favour: but I give thee another boon: demand it, son of the Asura." Prahlāda answered and said, "All my desires, oh lord, have been fulfilled by the boon that thou hast granted, that my faith in thee shall never know decay. Wealth, virtue, love, are as nothing; for even liberation is in his reach whose faith is firm in thee, root of the universal world." Viṣṇu said, "Since thy heart is filled immovably with trust in me, thou shalt, through my blessing, attain freedom from existence." Thus saying, Viṣṇu vanished from his sight; and Prahlāda repaired to his father, and bowed down before him. His father kissed him on the forehead[1], and embraced him, and shed tears, and said, "Dost thou live, my son?" And the great Asura repented of his former cruelty, and treated him with kindness: and Prahlāda, fulfilling his duties like any other youth, continued diligent in the service of his preceptor and his father. After his father had been put to death by Viṣṇu in the form of the man-lion[2], Prahlāda became the sovereign of the Daityas; and possessing the splendours of royalty consequent upon his piety, exercised extensive sway, and was blessed with a numerous progeny. At the expiration of an authority which was the reward of his meritorious acts, he was freed from the consequences of moral merit or demerit, and obtained, through meditation on the deity, final exemption from existence.
Such, Maitreya, was the Daitya Prahlāda, the wise and faithful worshipper of Viṣṇu, of whom you wished to hear; and such was his miraculous power. Whoever listens to the history of Prahlāda is immediately cleansed from his sins: the iniquities that he commits, by night or by day, shall be expiated by once hearing, or once reading, the history of Prahlāda. The perusal of this history on the day of full moon, of new moon, or on the eighth or twelfth day of the lunation[3], shall yield fruit equal to the donation of a cow[4]. As Viṣṇu protected Prahlāda in all the calamities to which he was exposed, so shall the deity protect him who listens constantly to the tale[5].
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1.21 - A DAY AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"According to the Puranas, the bhakta and the bhagavan are two separate entities. 'I'
am one and 'You' are another. The body is a plate, as it were, containing the water of mind, intelligence, and ego. Brahman is like the sun. It is reflected in the water.
--
RAM: "Keshab's disciples say that he was the first to harmonize jnna and bhakti."
Synthesis of jnna and bhakti
MASTER (in surprise): "How is that? What then of the Adhytma Rmyana? It is written there that, while praying to Rma, Nrada said: 'O Rma, Thou art the Supreme Brahman described in the Vedas. Thou dwellest with us as a man; Thou appearest as a man. In reality Thou art not a man; Thou art that Supreme Brahman.' Rma said: 'Nrada, I am very much pleased with you. Accept a boon from Me.' Nrada replied: 'What boon shall I ask of Thee? Grant me pure love for Thy Lotus Feet, and may I never be deluded by Thy world-bewitching my!' The Adhytma Rmyana is full of such statements regarding jnna and bhakti."
The conversation turned to Amrita, a disciple of Keshab.
--
"This kind of friction exists between the Vaishnavas and the Shaktas. The Vaishnava says, 'My Kesava is the only Saviour', whereas the Shakta insists, 'My bhagavati is the only Saviour.'
"Once I took Vaishnavcharan to Mathur Babu. Now, Vaishnavcharan was a very learned Vaishnava and an orthodox devotee of his sect. Mathur, on the other hand, was a devotee of the Divine Mother. They were engaged in a friendly discussion when suddenly Vaishnavcharan said, 'Kesava is the only Saviour.' No sooner did Mathur hear this than his face became red with anger and he blurted out, 'You rascal!' (All laugh.) He was a Shakta. Wasn't it natural for him to say that? I gave Vaishnavcharan a nudge.
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1.22 - ADVICE TO AN ACTOR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"As long as there is bhoga, there will be less of yoga. Furthermore, bhoga begets suffering. It is said in the bhagavata that the Avadhuta chose a kite as one of his twenty-four gurus. The kite had a fish in its beak; so it was surrounded by a thousand crows. Whichever way it flew with the fish, the crows pursued it crying, 'Caw! Caw!'
When all of a sudden the fish dropped from its beak, the crows flew after the fish, leaving the kite alone.
--
"Do you know how my faith in the name of Hari was all the more streng thened? Holy men, as you know, frequently visit the temple garden. Once a sdhu from Multan arrived. He was waiting for a party going to Gangasagar. (Pointing to M.) The sdhu was of his age. It was he who said to me, 'The way to realize God in the Kaliyuga is the path of bhakti as prescribed by Nrada.'
"One day Keshab came here with his followers. They stayed till ten at night. We were all seated in the Panchavati. Pratap and several others said they would like to spend the night here. Keshab said: 'No, I must go. I have some work to do.' I laughed and said: 'Can't you sleep without the smell of your fish-basket?
--
"After attaining maha bhava and prema one realizes that nothing exists but God. bhakti pales before bhava. Bhva ripens into maha bhava and prema.
(To Bannerji) "Do you still hear that gong-like sound at the time of meditation?"
--
Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the cement platform that encircled the trunk of the old banyan-tree in the Panchavati. Vijay, Surendra, bhavanath, Rkhl , and other devotees were present, a few of them sitting with the Master on the platform, the rest on the ground below. The devotees had thought of celebrating the Master's birthday, which had had to be put off because of his illness. Since Sri Ramakrishna now felt much better, the devotees wanted to have the celebration that day. A woman musician, a famous singer of kirtan, was going to entertain them with devotional songs.
It was one o'clock in the afternoon. M. had been looking for Sri Ramakrishna in the Master's room. When he did not find him there, he went to the Panchavati and eagerly asked the devotees, "Where is he?" He was standing right in front of the Master but in his excitement did not notice him. The devotees laughed loudly. A moment later M. saw Sri Ramakrishna and felt very much embarrassed. He prostrated himself before the Master, who sat there facing the south and smiling happily. Kedr and Vijay were sitting at his left. These two devotees had had a misunderstanding recently when Kedr had cut off his connexion with the Brahmo Samaj.
MASTER (to M., with a smile): "You see how I have united them?" The Master had brought a mdhavi creeper from Vrindvan in the year 1868 and had planted it in the Panchavati. The creeper had grown big and strong. Some children were jumping and swinging from it. The Master observed them and laughed. He said: "They are like young monkeys. They will not give up swinging even though they sometimes fall to the ground." Noticing that Surendra was standing before him, the Master said to him affectionately: "Come up and sit with us on the platform. Then you can dangle your feet comfortably." Surendra went up and took his seat. bhavanath had his coat on. Surendra said to him, "Are you going to England?"
MASTER (smiling): "God is our England. Now and then I used to leave off my clothes and joyfully roam about naked. Once Sambhu said to me: 'It is very comfortable to walk about naked. That is why you do it. Once I did it myself.' "
--
MASTER: "I see that all are under the control of woman. One day I went to Captain's house. From there I was to go to Ram's house. So I said to Captain, 'Please give me my carriage hire.' He asked his wife about it. She too held back and said: 'What's the matter? What's the matter?' At last Captain said, 'Ram will take care of it.' You see, the Git, the bhagavata, and the Vednta all bow before a woman! (All laugh.) "A man leaves his money, his property, and everything in the hands of his wife. But he says with affected simplicity, 'I have such a nature that I cannot keep even two rupees with me.'
"A man went to an office in search of a job. There were many vacancies, but the manager did not grant his request. A friend said to the applicant, 'Appeal to Golapi, and you will get the job.' Golapi was the manager's mistress.
--
The Master stood up, as he heard about Chaitanya's renunciation, and went into samdhi. The devotees put garlands of flowers around his neck. bhavanath and Rkhl supported his body lest he should fall on the ground. Vijay, Kedr, Ram, M., Ltu, and the other devotees stood around him in a circle, recalling one of the scenes of Chaitanya's kirtan.
The Master gradually came down to the sense plane. He was talking to Krishna, now and then uttering the word "Krishna". He could not say it very distinctly because of the intensity of his spiritual emotion. He said: "Krishna! Krishna! Krishna! Krishna Satchidananda! Nowadays I do not see Your form. Now I see You both inside me and outside. I see that it is You who have become the universe, all living beings, the twenty-four cosmic principles, and everything else. You alone have become mind, intelligence, everything. It is said in the 'Hymn of Salutation to the Guru': 'I bow down to the Guru by whose grace I have realized Him who pervades the indivisible universe of the animate and the inanimate.'
--
The Master again went into samdhi. His injured arm rested on bhavanath's shoulder.
Sri Ramakrishna partly regained outer consciousness. The musician improvised: Why should one who, for Thy sake, has given up everything Endure so much of suffering?
--
Yogamaya! bhagavata- bhakta- bhagavan!"
The Master took dust from the place where the kirtan had been sung and touched it to his forehead.
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1.23 - FESTIVAL AT SURENDRAS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Their love for Krishna destroyed their attachment to worldly things. Neither the threats of their relatives nor the criticism of others could make them desist from seeking the company of Krishna. In the love of the gopis for Krishna there was not the slightest trace of worldliness. It was the innate attraction of God for pure souls, as of the magnet for iron. The author of the bhagavata has compared this love to the all-consuming love of a woman for her beloved. Before the on rush of that love all barriers between man and God are swept away. The devotee surrenders himself completely to his Divine Beloved and in the end becomes one with Him.
Radha was the foremost of the gopis, and Krishna's chief playmate. She felt an indescribable longing for union with Him. A moment's separation from Krishna would rend her heart and soul.
--
At Surendra's garden house the kirtan had begun early in the morning. The musicians were singing about the love of Krishna and Radha for each other. The Master was frequently in samdhi. The room was crowded with devotees, among them bhavanath, Niranjan, Rkhl , Surendra, Ram, and M., and many members of the Brahmo Samaj.
In accordance with the custom, the kirtan had begun with, an introductory song about Gaurnga.
--
A DEVOTEE: "Things like this always happen when he is the supervisor." (All laugh.) MASTER (to the devotees): "Where is Surendra? What a nice disposition he has now! He is very outspoken; he isn't afraid to speak the truth. He is unstinting in his liberality. No one that goes to him for help comes away empty-handed. (To M.) You went to bhagavan Das. What sort of man is he?"
M: "He is very old now. I saw him at Kalna. It was night. He lay on a carpet and a devotee fed him with food that had been offered to God. He can hear only if one speaks loudly into his ear.
--
They began to talk about Keshab. Pratap said: "Even in boyhood he showed non-attachment to worldly things, seldom making merry with other boys. He was a student in the Hindu College. At that time he became friendly with Satyendra and through him made the acquaintance of his father, Devendranath Tagore. Keshab cultivated bhakti and at the same time practised meditation. At times he would be so much overcome with divine love that he would become unconscious. The main purpose of his life was to introduce religion among householders.
The conversation next turned to a certain Marhatta lady.
--
MASTER: "Yes, there are such signs. It is said in the bhagavata that a man who has seen God behaves sometimes like a child, sometimes like a ghoul, sometimes like an inert thing, and sometimes like a madman.
"The man who has seen God becomes like a child. He is beyond the three gunas; he is unattached to any of them. He behaves like a ghoul, for he maintains the same attitude toward things holy and unholy. Again, like a madman, he sometimes laughs and sometimes weeps. Now he dresses himself like a dandy and the next moment he goes entirely naked and roams about with his cloth under his arm. Therefore he seems to be a lunatic. Again, at times he sits motionless like an inert thing."
--
The path of bhakti for this age
A DEVOTEE: "Then what is the way for those who have not seen God? Must they give up all the duties of the world?"
MASTER: "The best path for this age is bhaktiyoga, the path of bhakti prescribed by Nrada: to sing the name and glories of God and pray to Him with a longing heart, 'O
God, give me knowledge, give me devotion, and reveal Thyself to me!' The path of karma is extremely difficult. Therefore one should pray: 'O God, make my duties fewer and fewer; and may I, through Thy grace, do the few duties that Thou givest me without any attachment to their results! May I have no desire to be involved in many activities!'
--
"I noticed the other day that Baburam, bhavanath, and Harish have a feminine nature.
In a vision I saw Baburam as a goddess with a necklace around her neck and with woman companions about her.
--
Baburam says that he too likes the womanly attitude. So I am right. bhavanath also is like that.
But Narendra, Rkhl, and Niranjan have a masculine nature.
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1.240 - 1.300 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
A Gujarati gentleman asked Sri bhagavan: They say that choice is offered to us to enjoy merits or demerits after our death. Their succession will be according to our choice. Is it so?
M.: Why raise these questions relating to events after death?
--
A middle-aged, weak-looking man came with a walking stick in his hand, placed it before bhagavan, bowed low and sat near Maharshi. He got up and with great humility offered the stick to bhagavan, saying that it was sandal-wood. Sri bhagavan told him to keep it for himself. Because nothing of bhagavan's can be safeguarded. Being common property but coveted by some, it will be taken away by any visitor with or without
bhagavan's permission. Then the donor may be displeased.
But the man still humbly insisted. Sri bhagavan could not resist his supplications, and said, "Keep it yourself as prasad from bhagavan."
The man then requested that the stick might first be taken and then given to him by Sri bhagavan with blessings. Sri bhagavan received it, smelled it, said it was fine, nodded, and handed it back to the man, saying, "Keep it. It will make you always remember me."
Talk 244.
--
Sri bhagavan said that the tiny hole in the Heart remains always closed, but it is opened by vichara with the result that 'I-I' consciousness shines forth. It is the same as samadhi.
209
--
(It must be remembered that Sri bhagavan had been with His mother from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. until she passed away. He was all along holding her head with one hand, the other hand placed on her bosom. What does it signify? He Himself said later that there was a struggle between Himself and His mother until her spirit reached the Heart.
Evidently the soul passes through a series of subtle experiences, and Sri bhagavan's touch generates a current which turns the soul back from its wandering into the Heart.
The samskaras, however, persist and a struggle is kept up between the spiritual force set up by His touch and the innate samskaras, until the latter are entirely destroyed and the soul is led into the
--
Sri bhagavan said: The Jnani says, "I am the body"; The ajnani says,
"I am the body"; what is the difference? 'I am' is the truth. The body is the limitation. The ajnani limits the 'I' to the body. 'I' remains independent of the body in sleep. The same 'I' is now in the wakeful state. Though imagined to be within the body, 'I' is without the body.
--
M.: bhakti fulfils your desire.
D.: I want to know how I can gain that peace of mind. Kindly be pleased to advise me.
--
D.: It seems difficult. May we proceed by bhakti marga?
M.: It is according to individual temperament and equipment. bhakti is the same as vichara.
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--
Of course, a few find vichara practicable. Others find bhakti easier.
D.: Did not Mr. Brunton find you in London? Was it only a dream?
--
D.: Yes, I feel it difficult. There are disciples of bhagavan who have had His Grace and realised without any considerable difficulty. I too wish to have that Grace. Being a woman and living at a long distance I cannot avail myself of Maharshi's holy company as much as I would wish and as often as I would. Possibly I may not be able to return. I request bhagavan's Grace. When I am back in my place, I want to remember bhagavan. May bhagavan be pleased to grant my prayer!
M.: Where are you going? You are not going anywhere. Even supposing you are the body, has your body come from Lucknow to
--
M.: Grace is the Self. I have already said, "If you remember bhagavan, you are prompted to do so by the Self." Is not Grace already there?
Is there a moment when Grace is not operating in you? Your remembrance is the forerunner of Grace. That is the response, that is the stimulus, that is the Self and that is Grace.
--
Mr. F. G. Pearce, Principal, Scindia School, Gwalior: bhagavan has stated
[in Sad Vidya Anubandham (Supplement) sloka 36]: "The illiterates are certainly better off than the literates whose egos are not destroyed by the quest of the self." This being so, could bhagavan advise a school master
(who feels this to be true) how to carry on education in such a way that the desire for literacy and intellectual knowledge may not obscure the more important search for the Self? Are the two incompatible? If they are not, then from what age, and by what means, can young people best be stimulated towards the search for the Real Truth within?
--
[A request from the same seeker: The above questioner has spent two very precious days in physical proximity to bhagavan Maharshi
(whom he has not seen since - 17 years ago - he visited Him for a few minutes on the hillside). His duties now compel him to take his body far away again to the north, and it may be years before he can return.
He humbly requests bhagavan to make a strong link with him, and to continue to help him with His grace, in the quest of the Self.
Maharshi had a gentle smile for this.]
--
Mr. Duncan Greenlees quoted a few verses from Srimad bhagavatam to the following effect:
"See the Self in yourself like the pure ether in all beings, in and out."
--
D.: Is this a True Path to the realisation of the, One Self? Is it not easier for some thus to practise seeing bhagavan in whatever meets the mind than to seek the Super-Mental through the mental inquiry
"Who am I?"
--
D.: Through poetry, music, japa, bhajan, beautiful landscapes, reading the lives of spiritual heroes, etc., one sometimes experiences a true sense of all-unity. Is that feeling of deep blissful quiet (wherein the personal self has no place) the "entering into the heart" whereof
bhagavan speaks? Will practice of that lead to a deeper samadhi, and so ultimately to a full vision of the Real?
--
D.: A certain young man from Dindigul spoke to Sri bhagavan, saying that he had learnt by his stay for a few days; that all that he need do was to enquire, "Who am I?" He wanted to know if any discipline was to be observed and started with the question: "Where should I do the enquiry?" meaning if he should do it in Guru sannidhi (the presence of the Master).
M.: The enquiry should be from where the 'I' is.
D.: People labour for gaining the summum bonum of life. I think that they are not on the right track. Sri bhagavan has made considerable tapas and achieved the goal. Sri bhagavan is also desirous that all should reach the goal and willing to help them to that end. His vicarious tapas must enable others to reach the goal rather easily. They need not undergo all the hardships which Sri bhagavan has already undergone. Their way has been made easy for them by Sri bhagavan. Am I not right?
Maharshi smiled and said: If that were so everyone would easily reach the goal, but each one must work for himself.
--
D.: A young man from Mysore gave a written slip to Sri bhagavan and waited for an answer. He had asked Sri bhagavan to say where other Mahatmas could be found whom he might approach for guidance. He confessed that he had left his home without
223
--
Sri bhagavan simply returned the note saying: I must answer any and every question. Unless I do so I am not great.
The boy tore away the slip and wrote another, which said, "You are kind to squirrels and hares. You fondle them when they struggle to run away from you. Yet you are indifferent to human beings. For instance, I have left my home and am waiting here for a fortnight. I have had no food some days. I am struggling.
--
Times. It related to recapitulation of past incarnations. In it Paul Brunton has mentioned the Buddhist methods of gaining that faculty. Sri bhagavan said, "There is a class of people who want to know all about their future or their past. They ignore the present. The load from the past forms the present misery. The attempt to recall the past is mere waste of time."
224
--
Sri bhagavan pointed out that the seven years is according to the boy; ten months is according to the observer. The difference is due to these two different upadhis. The boy's experience extending to seven years has been calculated by the observer to cover only 10 months of his own time.
Sri bhagavan again referred to Lila's story in Yoga Vasishta.
Talk 262.
--
The whole conversation was mentioned to Sri bhagavan with the following addition:
Parasurama has said that he felt some refreshing peace within when he met Samvritta on the way. So he made him out to be a great saint.
--
Sri bhagavan said: A Madhva saint Tatvaroyar had composed a bharani on his master Swarupanand. Pandits objected to the composition, saying that it was reserved to such as have killed more than a thousand elephants in battle, whereas Swarupan and was an idle man sitting somewhere unknown to people and he did not deserve that panegyric.
Tatvaroyar asked them all to assemble before his master so that they might see for themselves if he could slay one thousand elephants at a time. They did so. As soon as they appeared they were struck dumb and remained in beatific peace for a few days without the least movement. When they regained their senses, they saluted both the master and the disciple, saying that they were more than satisfied. Swarupan and excelled the warriors in that he could subdue the egos, which is a much more formidable task than slaying a thousand elephants.
--
Dr. Syed: Sri bhagavan says that the Heart is the Self. Psychology has it that malice, envy, jealousy and all passions have their seat in the heart. How are these two statements to be reconciled?
M.: The whole cosmos is contained in one pinhole in the Heart. These passions are part of the cosmos. They are avidya (ignorance).
--
D.: Does bhagavan see the world as part and parcel of Himself? How does He see the world?
M.: The Self alone is and nothing else. However, it is differentiated owing to ignorance. Differentiation is threefold: (1) of the same kind: (2) of a different kind, and (3) as parts in itself. The world is not another self similar to the self. It is not different from the self; nor is it part of the self.
--
D.: Does not then bhagavan see the world?
M.: Whom do you mean by bhagavan?
D.: A jiva advanced more than I.
--
D.: Does Sri bhagavan believe in evolution?
M.: Evolution must be from one state to another. When no differences are admitted, how can evolution arise?
--
M.: How does bhagavad Gita begin?" Neither I was not nor you nor these chiefs, etc." "Neither it is born, nor does it die, etc." So there is no birth, no death, no present as you look at it. Reality was, is, and
227
--
"I came last time with my husb and and children. I was thinking of their food and time was pressing. So I could not stay here as long as I would have wished. But I was later worried over the hurried nature of the visit. I have returned now to sit quiet and imbibe Sri bhagavan's
Grace. May He give me strength of mind!"
--
The hall was already kept clear of people. She sat on a crude carpet in front of Sri bhagavan. Sri bhagavan said smiling: "Yes.
Silence is perpetual speaking. Ordinary speech hinders that heartto-heart talk."
She agreed and sat quiet. Sri bhagavan was sitting reclining on the sofa. His eyes were fixed in her direction with a gracious smile on His lips. Both remained silent and motionless for about an hour.
Prasad was distributed. The lady said: "Now I want to return. The river between Bangalore and this place is in floods. On my way here a bus was overturned in the floods. My car came later, and I saw the sad accident. Still I was not afraid to ford the river. My car came out safe. I would like to return in daytime.
--
"I long for bhakti. I want more of this longing. Even realisation does not matter for me. Let me be strong in my longing."
M.: If the longing is there, Realisation will be forced on you even if you do not want it. Subhechcha is the doorway for realisation.
D.: Let it be so. But I am content with longing. Even when I am away from this place I must not relax in my devotion. May Sri bhagavan give me the necessary strength. Such longing could only be through
His Grace. I am personally too weak.
Again, when I was here on a previous occasion I asked several questions. But I could not follow Sri bhagavan's answers. I thought I would not ask any more questions but only sit quiet in
His Presence imbibing Grace which might be extended to me.
--
(2) bhakti; and (3) Sraddha. Ichcha means satisfaction of bodily wants without attachment to the body (such as hunger and thirst and evacuation). Unless it is done meditation cannot progress. bhakti and Sraddha are already known.
D.: There are two kinds of desires - the baser and the nobler. Is it our duty to transmute the baser one to the nobler?
--
D.: Well, bhagavan, you said there are three requisites of which ichcha is the satisfaction of natural wants without attachment to the body, etc. I take food three or four times a day and attend to bodily wants so much so that I am oppressed by the body. Is there a state when I shall be disembodied so that I might be free from the scourge of bodily wants?
M.: It is the attachments (raga, dwesha) which are injurious. The action is not bad in itself. There is no harm in eating three or four times. But only do not say, "I want this kind of food and not that kind" and so on.
--
D.: It is all right from the standpoint of bhagavan. But what about us?
M.: The difference 'He' and 'I' are the obstacles to jnana.
D.: But it cannot be denied that bhagavan is of a high order whereas we are limited. Will bhagavan make me one with Him?
M.: Were you aware of limitations in your sleep?
--
While speaking of the animal companions in the hall Sri bhagavan quoted a Tamil stanza by Avvai.
When the old lady was going along she heard on one occasion some one praising Kambar. She replied with a stanza which means:
--
The roof was pulled down and the walls demolished to get rid of the mud which harboured the ants. Sri bhagavan saw that the hollows protected by stones were made into towns. These were skirted by walls plastered black, and there were roads to neighbouring cities which were also similarly skirted with black plastered walls. The roads were indicated by these walls. The interior of the town contained holes in which ants used to live. The whole wall was thus tenanted by white ants which ravaged the roofing materials above.
Sri bhagavan had also watched a spider making its web and described it. It is seen in one place, then in another place, again in a third place. The fibre is fixed at all these points. The spider moves along it, descends, ascends and goes round and round and the web is finished. It is geometrical. The net is spread out in the morning and rolled up in the evening.
Similarly the wasps build their nests of lac (crude), and so on.
--
D.: I shall now explain how this question arose. I was meditating. I began to reflect on the Grace shown by Christ to some devotees who got salvation. I consider that Sri bhagavan is similar. Is not salvation the result of similar Grace? That is what I mean by my questions.
233
--
D.: It is true from bhagavan's standpoint. But for us .... my work demands the best part of my time and energy; often I am too tired to devote myself to Atma-chintana.
M.: The feeling "I work" is the hindrance. Enquire, "Who works?"
--
Chapter X of bhagavad Gita?
M.: The specifications are in reply to a definite question by Arjuna who required to know the Lord's vibhutis for convenience of worship
--
D.: Sri bhagavan.
M.: How was I attracted here? By Arunachala. The Power cannot be denied. Again Arunachala is within and not without. The Self is
--
D.: Does not bhakti imply duality?
M.: Swa swarupanusandhanam bhaktirityabhidheeyate (Reflection on one's own Self is called bhakti). bhakti and Self-Enquiry are one and the same. The Self of the Advaitins is the God of the bhaktas.
D.: Is there a spiritual hierarchy of all the original propounders of religions watching the spiritual welfare of the humans?
--
D.: What does Sri bhagavan think of Pravritti and nivritti margas?
M.: Yes. Both are mentioned. What of that?
--
Sri bhagavan said: This hill is said to be wisdom in visible shape.
D.: How is it visible to the physical eye?
--
Then the experience of a young disciple was mentioned. The young man, educated and in good circumstances, in good health and sober mind, was once facing Sri bhagavan's picture in his home and meditating on the figure. The figure suddenly appeared animated with life, which threw the young man into a spasm of fear. He called out for his mother. His mother came and asked him what the matter was. He was surrounded by his relatives who were perplexed by his appearance. He was aware of their presence, but was still overpowered by a mysterious force which he tried to resist. He became unconscious for a short time. Fear seized him as he regained consciousness. The people became anxious and tried to bring him round with medicines.
When later he came to Tiruvannamalai he had some foreboding of similar experience. The proximity of Sri bhagavan prevented any untoward happening. But whenever he wandered away from the hall he found the force almost irresistible and himself in the grip of fear.
Sri bhagavan said: "Is it so? No one told me this before."
A devotee asked, if it was not saktipata (descent of divine power)?
--
When she came into the hall she saluted Maharshi with great respect and feeling, and sat down on a wool blanket in front of Sri bhagavan. Sri
bhagavan was then reading Trilinga in Telugu on the reincarnation of a boy. The boy is now thirteen years old and reading in the Government
--
Sri bhagavan said, "some are born immediately after, others after some lapse of time, a few are not reborn on this earth but eventually get salvation in some higher region, and a very few get absolved here and now."
She: I do not mean that. Is it possible to know the condition of an individual after his death?
--
She: Let me have true knowledge by Sri bhagavan's Grace.
M.: Get rid of the 'I-thought'. So long as 'I' is alive, there is grief. When
--
She: I hear all this. It is beyond my grasp. I pray Sri bhagavan to help me to understand it all.
"I had been to a waterfall in Mysore. The cascade was a fascinating sight. The waters streamed out in the shapes of fingers trying to grasp the rocks but were rushed on by the current to the depths below. I imagined this to be the state of the individuals clinging to their present surroundings. But I cannot help clinging.
--
Sri bhagavan said further: Annamaya kosa is the gross body sheath. The senses with the prana and the karmendriyas form the pranamayakosa (sense-sheath). The senses with the mind form the manomaya kosa (mind-sheath). They are the jnanendryas. The mind is formed of thoughts only Idam (this) is the object and aham
('I') is the subject; the two together form the vijnanamayakosa
--
Sri bhagavan humorously, remarked, "We have seen those places without the trouble of travel."
D.: I wish to go to Kailas.
--
After some time Sri bhagavan continued: Appar was decrepit and old and yet began to travel to Kailas.
Another old man appeared on the way and tried to dissuade him from the attempt, saying that it was so difficult to reach there. Appar was however obdurate and said that he would risk his life in the attempt. The stranger asked him to dip himself in a tank close by.
--
The following are a few titbits therefrom: Sri bhagavan's answers were quite spontaneous and smooth.
Q.: To which asramam does Sri bhagavan belong?
M.: Atiasramam (beyond the four stages).
--
M.: Suka, Risha bha, Jada bharata and others.
Q.: You left home at an early age because you had no attachment for home and property. But here, there is property in the Asramam.
--
A lawyer devotee asked Sri bhagavan if the previous day's examination by Commission caused much strain.
M.: I did not use my mind and so there was no strain. Let them examine me for a thousand days. I don't mind.
--
D.: It is said in Srimad bhagavad Gita: "Realise the Self with pure intellect and also by service to Guru and by enquiry." How are they to be reconciled?
M.: Iswaro Gururatmeti - Iswara, Guru and Self are identical. So long as the sense of duality persists in you, you seek a Guru considering that he stands apart. He however teaches you the truth and you gain the insight.
--
bhagavata, Maha bharata, etc. It also forms the motto of Chapter
XI in Self-Realisation.
--
D.: Why does not Sri bhagavan go about and preach the Truth to the people at large?
M.: How do you know that I am not doing it? Does preaching consist in mounting a platform and haranguing to the people around?
--
Sri bhagavan is said to have remarked to an inquisitive person: "What is the meaning of this talk of truth and falsehood in the world which is itself false?"
256
--
A Punjabi gentleman, a doctor by profession, came here with his wife to visit Sri bhagavan. He was in the hall when Sri bhagavan came in after lunch; then he asked: "How should I meditate? I do not have peace of mind."
M.: Peace is our real nature. It need not be attained. Our thoughts must be obliterated.
--
They obstruct bhakti also.
The interpreter advised the questioner to study Who am I? The doctor was ready with his protestations: "I have read it also. I cannot still make my mind concentrate."
--
(independence of recognition), Sri bhagavan said:
The Vedantins say that Maya is the sakti of illusion premised in Siva.
--
While discussing Karma, Sri bhagavan said: "Karma has its fruit
(phala). They are like cause and effect. The interrelation of a cause and its effect is due to a Sakti whom we call God. God is phala data
--
Sri bhagavan after some time said: "People speak of memory and oblivion of the Fullness of the Self. Oblivion and memory are only thought-forms. They will alternate so long as there are thoughts. But
Reality lies beyond these. Memory or oblivion must be dependent on something. That something must be foreign too; otherwise there cannot be oblivion. It is called 'I' by everyone. When one looks for it, it is not found because it is not real. Hence 'I' is synonymous with illusion or ignorance (maya, avidya or ajnana). To know that there never was ignorance is the goal of all the spiritual teachings. Ignorance must be of one who is aware. Awareness is jnana. Jnana is eternal and natural.
--
Bombay, seems learned in Srimad bhagavad Gita. He asked:
Srimad bhagavad Gita says: mattah parataram nanyat kinchit and later on sutre manigana iva - "there is nothing different from Me" and later on "like beads strung on a thread." If there is nothing but Sri
Krishna, how can the world be said to be like "beads on a string?"
--
D.: Unity can only be after merging into bhagavan. True - but till then there must be diversity. That is samsara.
M.: Where are we now? Are we apart from bhagavan? The samsara and we are all in bhagavan.
D.: But that is the experience of the jnanis. Differentiation persists until jnana dawns. So there is samsara for me.
--
M.: Yes. Make the mind gradually still (Sanaissanaih uparamet) says the bhagavad Gita.
After some time, the visitor asked if one Mr. G. had been here on or about the 20th instant. He himself had heard of Maharshi from him.
--
bhagavata, bharata and other works.*
Q.: Are there any restrictions or discipline for that state?
--
Sri bhagavan was shown a stanza in His own handwriting in praise of
Himself as Subrahmanya.
Sri bhagavan said that the handwriting was His own whereas the ideas were Perumalswami's.
Q.: But do you not agree with the statement made in it?
--
Sri bhagavan said: No. Tanmatras are sukshma - subtler than that.
Although the dream-creations are subtle as compared with the gross world of the wakeful state, yet the dream-creations are gross compared to tanmatras. Tanmatras after panchikarana give rise to the form of the antahkarnas (inner organ, mind). There too, by the different sets
--
M.: That Peace is the Real nature. Contrary ideas are only superimpositions. This is true bhakti, true yoga, true jnana. You may say that this peace is acquired by practice. The wrong notions are given up by practice. This is all. Your true nature always persists.
These flashes are only signs of the ensuing revelation of the Self.
In reply to the first questioner bhagavan said: The Heart is the
Self. It is not within or without. The mind is Its sakti. After the emergence of the mind, the universe appears and the body is seen to be contained in it. Whereas all these are contained in the Self and they cannot exist apart from the Self.
--
Explaining adhyaropapavadabhyam (superimposition and its elimination), Sri bhagavan pointed out that the first turns you inward to the Self; and then according to the second, you know that the world is not apart from the Self.
16th December, 1936
--
International Religious Conference as a delegate from Baroda, came here on a visit. He is a young man, well-groomed, alert, and quite conscious of his well-earned merit. He presented a note containing some questions to Sri bhagavan.
D.: Pray help me realise Atma - Paramatma - Satchidananda.
--
Poovan, a shepherd, says that he knows Sri bhagavan since thirty years ago, the days of Virupakshi cave. He used at times to supply milk to the visitors in those days.
Some six years ago he had lost a sheep, for which he was searching for three days. The sheep was pregnant and he had lost all hopes of recovering her, because he thought that she had been set upon by wild animals. He was one day passing by the Asramam, when Sri
bhagavan saw him and enquired how he was. The man replied that he was looking out for a lost sheep. Sri bhagavan kept quiet, as is usual with Him. Then He told the shepherd to help in lifting some stones, which he did with great pleasure. After the work was finished,
Sri bhagavan told him: "Go this way", pointing the footpath towards the town. "You will find the stray sheep on the way". So he did and found the lost sheep with two little lambs.
271
--
He now says, "What a bhagavan is this! Look at the force of his words! He is great! He never forgets even a poor man like me. He remembers my son Manikkam also with kindness. Such are the great ones! I am happy when I do any little work for Him, such as looking to the cows when they are in heat".
18th December, 1936
--
After a short silence Sri bhagavan continued: You are told to meditate now and find who you are. Instead of doing it you ask
"Why is there no meditation in dream or in sleep?" If you find out for whom there is jagrat (waking), it will be clear that dream and sleep are also for the same one. You are the witness of jagrat
--
Mr. T. K. S. Iyer asked Sri bhagavan about the source of sound.
M.: The general opinion is that para (sound) comes from the Muladhara
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1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
A Gujarati gentleman asked Sri bhagavan: They say that choice is offered to us to enjoy merits or demerits after our death. Their succession will be according to our choice. Is it so?
M.: Why raise these questions relating to events after death?
--
A middle-aged, weak-looking man came with a walking stick in his hand, placed it before bhagavan, bowed low and sat near Maharshi. He got up and with great humility offered the stick to bhagavan, saying that it was sandal-wood. Sri bhagavan told him to keep it for himself. Because nothing of bhagavans can be safeguarded. Being common property but coveted by some, it will be taken away by any visitor with or without
bhagavans permission. Then the donor may be displeased.
But the man still humbly insisted. Sri bhagavan could not resist his supplications, and said, Keep it yourself as prasad from bhagavan.
The man then requested that the stick might first be taken and then given to him by Sri bhagavan with blessings. Sri bhagavan received it, smelled it, said it was fine, nodded, and handed it back to the man, saying, Keep it. It will make you always remember me.
Talk 244.
--
Sri bhagavan said that the tiny hole in the Heart remains always closed, but it is opened by vichara with the result that I-I consciousness shines forth. It is the same as samadhi.
D.: What is the difference between fainting and sleep?
--
(It must be remembered that Sri bhagavan had been with His mother from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. until she passed away. He was all along holding her head with one hand, the other hand placed on her bosom. What does it signify? He Himself said later that there was a struggle between Himself and His mother until her spirit reached the Heart.
Evidently the soul passes through a series of subtle experiences, and Sri bhagavans touch generates a current which turns the soul back from its wandering into the Heart.
The samskaras, however, persist and a struggle is kept up between the spiritual force set up by His touch and the innate samskaras, until the latter are entirely destroyed and the soul is led into the
--
Sri bhagavan said: The Jnani says, I am the body; The ajnani says,
I am the body; what is the difference? I am is the truth. The body is the limitation. The ajnani limits the I to the body. I remains independent of the body in sleep. The same I is now in the wakeful state. Though imagined to be within the body, I is without the body.
--
M.: bhakti fulfils your desire.
D.: I want to know how I can gain that peace of mind. Kindly be pleased to advise me.
--
D.: It seems difficult. May we proceed by bhakti marga?
M.: It is according to individual temperament and equipment. bhakti is the same as vichara.
D.: I mean meditation, etc.
--
Of course, a few find vichara practicable. Others find bhakti easier.
D.: Did not Mr. Brunton find you in London? Was it only a dream?
--
D.: Yes, I feel it difficult. There are disciples of bhagavan who have had His Grace and realised without any considerable difficulty. I too wish to have that Grace. Being a woman and living at a long distance I cannot avail myself of Maharshis holy company as much as I would wish and as often as I would. Possibly I may not be able to return. I request bhagavans Grace. When I am back in my place, I want to remember bhagavan. May bhagavan be pleased to grant my prayer!
M.: Where are you going? You are not going anywhere. Even supposing you are the body, has your body come from Lucknow to
--
M.: Grace is the Self. I have already said, If you remember bhagavan, you are prompted to do so by the Self. Is not Grace already there?
Is there a moment when Grace is not operating in you? Your remembrance is the forerunner of Grace. That is the response, that is the stimulus, that is the Self and that is Grace.
--
Mr. F. G. Pearce, Principal, Scindia School, Gwalior: bhagavan has stated
[in Sad Vidya Anubandham (Supplement) sloka 36]: The illiterates are certainly better off than the literates whose egos are not destroyed by the quest of the self. This being so, could bhagavan advise a school master
(who feels this to be true) how to carry on education in such a way that the desire for literacy and intellectual knowledge may not obscure the more important search for the Self? Are the two incompatible? If they are not, then from what age, and by what means, can young people best be stimulated towards the search for the Real Truth within?
--
[A request from the same seeker: The above questioner has spent two very precious days in physical proximity to bhagavan Maharshi
(whom he has not seen since - 17 years ago - he visited Him for a few minutes on the hillside). His duties now compel him to take his body far away again to the north, and it may be years before he can return.
He humbly requests bhagavan to make a strong link with him, and to continue to help him with His grace, in the quest of the Self.
Maharshi had a gentle smile for this.]
--
Mr. Duncan Greenlees quoted a few verses from Srimad bhagavatam to the following effect:
See the Self in yourself like the pure ether in all beings, in and out.
--
D.: Is this a True Path to the realisation of the, One Self? Is it not easier for some thus to practise seeing bhagavan in whatever meets the mind than to seek the Super-Mental through the mental inquiry
Who am I?
--
D.: Through poetry, music, japa, bhajan, beautiful landscapes, reading the lives of spiritual heroes, etc., one sometimes experiences a true sense of all-unity. Is that feeling of deep blissful quiet (wherein the personal self has no place) the entering into the heart whereof
bhagavan speaks? Will practice of that lead to a deeper samadhi, and so ultimately to a full vision of the Real?
--
D.: A certain young man from Dindigul spoke to Sri bhagavan, saying that he had learnt by his stay for a few days; that all that he need do was to enquire, Who am I? He wanted to know if any discipline was to be observed and started with the question: Where should I do the enquiry? meaning if he should do it in Guru sannidhi (the presence of the Master).
M.: The enquiry should be from where the I is.
D.: People labour for gaining the summum bonum of life. I think that they are not on the right track. Sri bhagavan has made considerable tapas and achieved the goal. Sri bhagavan is also desirous that all should reach the goal and willing to help them to that end. His vicarious tapas must enable others to reach the goal rather easily. They need not undergo all the hardships which Sri bhagavan has already undergone. Their way has been made easy for them by Sri bhagavan. Am I not right?
Maharshi smiled and said: If that were so everyone would easily reach the goal, but each one must work for himself.
--
D.: A young man from Mysore gave a written slip to Sri bhagavan and waited for an answer. He had asked Sri bhagavan to say where other Mahatmas could be found whom he might approach for guidance. He confessed that he had left his home without
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi informing his elders in order that he might seek God through
--
Sri bhagavan simply returned the note saying: I must answer any and every question. Unless I do so I am not great.
The boy tore away the slip and wrote another, which said, You are kind to squirrels and hares. You fondle them when they struggle to run away from you. Yet you are indifferent to human beings. For instance, I have left my home and am waiting here for a fortnight. I have had no food some days. I am struggling.
--
Times. It related to recapitulation of past incarnations. In it Paul Brunton has mentioned the Buddhist methods of gaining that faculty. Sri bhagavan said, There is a class of people who want to know all about their future or their past. They ignore the present. The load from the past forms the present misery. The attempt to recall the past is mere waste of time.
Talk 261.
--
Sri bhagavan pointed out that the seven years is according to the boy; ten months is according to the observer. The difference is due to these two different upadhis. The boys experience extending to seven years has been calculated by the observer to cover only 10 months of his own time.
Sri bhagavan again referred to Lilas story in Yoga Vasishta.
Talk 262.
--
The whole conversation was mentioned to Sri bhagavan with the following addition:
Parasurama has said that he felt some refreshing peace within when he met Samvritta on the way. So he made him out to be a great saint.
--
Sri bhagavan said: A Madhva saint Tatvaroyar had composed a bharani on his master Swarupanand. Pandits objected to the composition, saying that it was reserved to such as have killed more than a thousand elephants in battle, whereas Swarupan and was an idle man sitting somewhere unknown to people and he did not deserve that panegyric.
Tatvaroyar asked them all to assemble before his master so that they might see for themselves if he could slay one thousand elephants at a time. They did so. As soon as they appeared they were struck dumb and remained in beatific peace for a few days without the least movement. When they regained their senses, they saluted both the master and the disciple, saying that they were more than satisfied. Swarupan and excelled the warriors in that he could subdue the egos, which is a much more formidable task than slaying a thousand elephants.
--
Dr. Syed: Sri bhagavan says that the Heart is the Self. Psychology has it that malice, envy, jealousy and all passions have their seat in the heart. How are these two statements to be reconciled?
M.: The whole cosmos is contained in one pinhole in the Heart. These passions are part of the cosmos. They are avidya (ignorance).
--
D.: Does bhagavan see the world as part and parcel of Himself? How does He see the world?
M.: The Self alone is and nothing else. However, it is differentiated owing to ignorance. Differentiation is threefold: (1) of the same kind: (2) of a different kind, and (3) as parts in itself. The world is not another self similar to the self. It is not different from the self; nor is it part of the self.
--
D.: Does not then bhagavan see the world?
M.: Whom do you mean by bhagavan?
D.: A jiva advanced more than I.
--
D.: Does Sri bhagavan believe in evolution?
M.: Evolution must be from one state to another. When no differences are admitted, how can evolution arise?
--
M.: How does bhagavad Gita begin? Neither I was not nor you nor these chiefs, etc. Neither it is born, nor does it die, etc. So there is no birth, no death, no present as you look at it. Reality was, is, and
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi will be. It is changeless. Later Arjuna asked Sri Krishna how he could have lived before Aditya. Then Krishna, seeing Arjuna was confounding Him with the gross body, spoke to him accordingly.
--
I came last time with my husb and and children. I was thinking of their food and time was pressing. So I could not stay here as long as I would have wished. But I was later worried over the hurried nature of the visit. I have returned now to sit quiet and imbibe Sri bhagavans
Grace. May He give me strength of mind!
The hall was already kept clear of people. She sat on a crude carpet in front of Sri bhagavan. Sri bhagavan said smiling: Yes.
Silence is perpetual speaking. Ordinary speech hinders that heartto-heart talk.
She agreed and sat quiet. Sri bhagavan was sitting reclining on the sofa. His eyes were fixed in her direction with a gracious smile on His lips. Both remained silent and motionless for about an hour.
Prasad was distributed. The lady said: Now I want to return. The river between Bangalore and this place is in floods. On my way here a bus was overturned in the floods. My car came later, and I saw the sad accident. Still I was not afraid to ford the river. My car came out safe. I would like to return in daytime.
--
I long for bhakti. I want more of this longing. Even realisation does not matter for me. Let me be strong in my longing.
M.: If the longing is there, Realisation will be forced on you even if you do not want it. Subhechcha is the doorway for realisation.
D.: Let it be so. But I am content with longing. Even when I am away from this place I must not relax in my devotion. May Sri bhagavan give me the necessary strength. Such longing could only be through
His Grace. I am personally too weak.
Again, when I was here on a previous occasion I asked several questions. But I could not follow Sri bhagavans answers. I thought I would not ask any more questions but only sit quiet in
His Presence imbibing Grace which might be extended to me.
--
(2) bhakti; and (3) Sraddha. Ichcha means satisfaction of bodily wants without attachment to the body (such as hunger and thirst and evacuation). Unless it is done meditation cannot progress. bhakti and Sraddha are already known.
D.: There are two kinds of desires - the baser and the nobler. Is it our duty to transmute the baser one to the nobler?
--
D.: Well, bhagavan, you said there are three requisites of which ichcha is the satisfaction of natural wants without attachment to the body, etc. I take food three or four times a day and attend to bodily wants so much so that I am oppressed by the body. Is there a state when I shall be disembodied so that I might be free from the scourge of bodily wants?
M.: It is the attachments (raga, dwesha) which are injurious. The action is not bad in itself. There is no harm in eating three or four times. But only do not say, I want this kind of food and not that kind and so on.
--
D.: It is all right from the standpoint of bhagavan. But what about us?
M.: The difference He and I are the obstacles to jnana.
D.: But it cannot be denied that bhagavan is of a high order whereas we are limited. Will bhagavan make me one with Him?
M.: Were you aware of limitations in your sleep?
--
While speaking of the animal companions in the hall Sri bhagavan quoted a Tamil stanza by Avvai.
When the old lady was going along she heard on one occasion some one praising Kambar. She replied with a stanza which means:
--
The roof was pulled down and the walls demolished to get rid of the mud which harboured the ants. Sri bhagavan saw that the hollows protected by stones were made into towns. These were skirted by walls plastered black, and there were roads to neighbouring cities which were also similarly skirted with black plastered walls. The roads were indicated by these walls. The interior of the town contained holes in which ants used to live. The whole wall was thus tenanted by white ants which ravaged the roofing materials above.
Sri bhagavan had also watched a spider making its web and described it. It is seen in one place, then in another place, again in a third place. The fibre is fixed at all these points. The spider moves along it, descends, ascends and goes round and round and the web is finished. It is geometrical. The net is spread out in the morning and rolled up in the evening.
Similarly the wasps build their nests of lac (crude), and so on.
--
D.: I shall now explain how this question arose. I was meditating. I began to reflect on the Grace shown by Christ to some devotees who got salvation. I consider that Sri bhagavan is similar. Is not salvation the result of similar Grace? That is what I mean by my questions.
M.: Yes. Right.
--
D.: It is true from bhagavans standpoint. But for us .... my work demands the best part of my time and energy; often I am too tired to devote myself to Atma-chintana.
M.: The feeling I work is the hindrance. Enquire, Who works?
--
Chapter X of bhagavad Gita?
M.: The specifications are in reply to a definite question by Arjuna who required to know the Lords vibhutis for convenience of worship
--
D.: Sri bhagavan.
M.: How was I attracted here? By Arunachala. The Power cannot be denied. Again Arunachala is within and not without. The Self is
--
D.: Does not bhakti imply duality?
M.: Swa swarupanusandhanam bhaktirityabhidheeyate (Reflection on ones own Self is called bhakti). bhakti and Self-Enquiry are one and the same. The Self of the Advaitins is the God of the bhaktas.
D.: Is there a spiritual hierarchy of all the original propounders of religions watching the spiritual welfare of the humans?
--
D.: What does Sri bhagavan think of Pravritti and nivritti margas?
M.: Yes. Both are mentioned. What of that?
--
Sri bhagavan said: This hill is said to be wisdom in visible shape.
D.: How is it visible to the physical eye?
--
Then the experience of a young disciple was mentioned. The young man, educated and in good circumstances, in good health and sober mind, was once facing Sri bhagavans picture in his home and meditating on the figure. The figure suddenly appeared animated with life, which threw the young man into a spasm of fear. He called out for his mother. His mother came and asked him what the matter was. He was surrounded by his relatives who were perplexed by his appearance. He was aware of their presence, but was still overpowered by a mysterious force which he tried to resist. He became unconscious for a short time. Fear seized him as he regained consciousness. The people became anxious and tried to bring him round with medicines.
When later he came to Tiruvannamalai he had some foreboding of similar experience. The proximity of Sri bhagavan prevented any untoward happening. But whenever he wandered away from the hall he found the force almost irresistible and himself in the grip of fear.
Sri bhagavan said: Is it so? No one told me this before.
A devotee asked, if it was not saktipata (descent of divine power)?
--
When she came into the hall she saluted Maharshi with great respect and feeling, and sat down on a wool blanket in front of Sri bhagavan. Sri
bhagavan was then reading Trilinga in Telugu on the reincarnation of a boy. The boy is now thirteen years old and reading in the Government
--
Sri bhagavan said, some are born immediately after, others after some lapse of time, a few are not reborn on this earth but eventually get salvation in some higher region, and a very few get absolved here and now.
She: I do not mean that. Is it possible to know the condition of an individual after his death?
--
She: Let me have true knowledge by Sri bhagavans Grace.
M.: Get rid of the I-thought. So long as I is alive, there is grief. When
--
She: I hear all this. It is beyond my grasp. I pray Sri bhagavan to help me to understand it all.
I had been to a waterfall in Mysore. The cascade was a fascinating sight. The waters streamed out in the shapes of fingers trying to grasp the rocks but were rushed on by the current to the depths below. I imagined this to be the state of the individuals clinging to their present surroundings. But I cannot help clinging.
--
Sri bhagavan said further: Annamaya kosa is the gross body sheath. The senses with the prana and the karmendriyas form the pranamayakosa (sense-sheath). The senses with the mind form the manomaya kosa (mind-sheath). They are the jnanendryas. The mind is formed of thoughts only Idam (this) is the object and aham
(I) is the subject; the two together form the vijnanamayakosa
--
Sri bhagavan humorously, remarked, We have seen those places without the trouble of travel.
D.: I wish to go to Kailas.
--
After some time Sri bhagavan continued: Appar was decrepit and old and yet began to travel to Kailas.
Another old man appeared on the way and tried to dissuade him from the attempt, saying that it was so difficult to reach there. Appar was however obdurate and said that he would risk his life in the attempt. The stranger asked him to dip himself in a tank close by.
--
The following are a few titbits therefrom: Sri bhagavans answers were quite spontaneous and smooth.
Q.: To which asramam does Sri bhagavan belong?
M.: Atiasramam (beyond the four stages).
--
M.: Suka, Risha bha, Jada bharata and others.
Q.: You left home at an early age because you had no attachment for home and property. But here, there is property in the Asramam.
--
A lawyer devotee asked Sri bhagavan if the previous days examination by Commission caused much strain.
M.: I did not use my mind and so there was no strain. Let them examine me for a thousand days. I dont mind.
--
D.: It is said in Srimad bhagavad Gita: Realise the Self with pure intellect and also by service to Guru and by enquiry. How are they to be reconciled?
M.: Iswaro Gururatmeti - Iswara, Guru and Self are identical. So long as the sense of duality persists in you, you seek a Guru considering that he stands apart. He however teaches you the truth and you gain the insight.
--
bhagavata, Maha bharata, etc. It also forms the motto of Chapter
XI in Self-Realisation.
--
D.: Why does not Sri bhagavan go about and preach the Truth to the people at large?
M.: How do you know that I am not doing it? Does preaching consist in mounting a platform and haranguing to the people around?
--
Sri bhagavan is said to have remarked to an inquisitive person: What is the meaning of this talk of truth and falsehood in the world which is itself false?
27th November, 1936
--
A Punjabi gentleman, a doctor by profession, came here with his wife to visit Sri bhagavan. He was in the hall when Sri bhagavan came in after lunch; then he asked: How should I meditate? I do not have peace of mind.
M.: Peace is our real nature. It need not be attained. Our thoughts must be obliterated.
--
They obstruct bhakti also.
The interpreter advised the questioner to study Who am I? The doctor was ready with his protestations: I have read it also. I cannot still make my mind concentrate.
--
(independence of recognition), Sri bhagavan said:
The Vedantins say that Maya is the sakti of illusion premised in Siva.
--
While discussing Karma, Sri bhagavan said: Karma has its fruit
(phala). They are like cause and effect. The interrelation of a cause and its effect is due to a Sakti whom we call God. God is phala data
--
Sri bhagavan after some time said: People speak of memory and oblivion of the Fullness of the Self. Oblivion and memory are only thought-forms. They will alternate so long as there are thoughts. But
Reality lies beyond these. Memory or oblivion must be dependent on something. That something must be foreign too; otherwise there cannot be oblivion. It is called I by everyone. When one looks for it, it is not found because it is not real. Hence I is synonymous with illusion or ignorance (maya, avidya or ajnana). To know that there never was ignorance is the goal of all the spiritual teachings. Ignorance must be of one who is aware. Awareness is jnana. Jnana is eternal and natural.
--
Bombay, seems learned in Srimad bhagavad Gita. He asked:
Srimad bhagavad Gita says: mattah parataram nanyat kinchit and later on sutre manigana iva - there is nothing different from Me and later on like beads strung on a thread. If there is nothing but Sri
Krishna, how can the world be said to be like beads on a string?
--
D.: Unity can only be after merging into bhagavan. True - but till then there must be diversity. That is samsara.
M.: Where are we now? Are we apart from bhagavan? The samsara and we are all in bhagavan.
D.: But that is the experience of the jnanis. Differentiation persists until jnana dawns. So there is samsara for me.
--
M.: Yes. Make the mind gradually still (Sanaissanaih uparamet) says the bhagavad Gita.
After some time, the visitor asked if one Mr. G. had been here on or about the 20th instant. He himself had heard of Maharshi from him.
--
bhagavata, bharata and other works.*
Q.: Are there any restrictions or discipline for that state?
--
Sri bhagavan was shown a stanza in His own handwriting in praise of
Himself as Subrahmanya.
Sri bhagavan said that the handwriting was His own whereas the ideas were Perumalswamis.
Q.: But do you not agree with the statement made in it?
--
Sri bhagavan said: No. Tanmatras are sukshma - subtler than that.
Although the dream-creations are subtle as compared with the gross world of the wakeful state, yet the dream-creations are gross compared to tanmatras. Tanmatras after panchikarana give rise to the form of the antahkarnas (inner organ, mind). There too, by the different sets
--
M.: That Peace is the Real nature. Contrary ideas are only superimpositions. This is true bhakti, true yoga, true jnana. You may say that this peace is acquired by practice. The wrong notions are given up by practice. This is all. Your true nature always persists.
These flashes are only signs of the ensuing revelation of the Self.
In reply to the first questioner bhagavan said: The Heart is the
Self. It is not within or without. The mind is Its sakti. After the emergence of the mind, the universe appears and the body is seen to be contained in it. Whereas all these are contained in the Self and they cannot exist apart from the Self.
--
Explaining adhyaropapavadabhyam (superimposition and its elimination), Sri bhagavan pointed out that the first turns you inward to the Self; and then according to the second, you know that the world is not apart from the Self.
16th December, 1936
--
International Religious Conference as a delegate from Baroda, came here on a visit. He is a young man, well-groomed, alert, and quite conscious of his well-earned merit. He presented a note containing some questions to Sri bhagavan.
D.: Pray help me realise Atma - Paramatma - Satchidananda.
--
Poovan, a shepherd, says that he knows Sri bhagavan since thirty years ago, the days of Virupakshi cave. He used at times to supply milk to the visitors in those days.
Some six years ago he had lost a sheep, for which he was searching for three days. The sheep was pregnant and he had lost all hopes of recovering her, because he thought that she had been set upon by wild animals. He was one day passing by the Asramam, when Sri
bhagavan saw him and enquired how he was. The man replied that he was looking out for a lost sheep. Sri bhagavan kept quiet, as is usual with Him. Then He told the shepherd to help in lifting some stones, which he did with great pleasure. After the work was finished,
Sri bhagavan told him: Go this way, pointing the footpath towards the town. You will find the stray sheep on the way. So he did and found the lost sheep with two little lambs.
He now says, What a bhagavan is this! Look at the force of his words! He is great! He never forgets even a poor man like me. He remembers my son Manikkam also with kindness. Such are the great ones! I am happy when I do any little work for Him, such as looking to the cows when they are in heat.
18th December, 1936
--
After a short silence Sri bhagavan continued: You are told to meditate now and find who you are. Instead of doing it you ask
Why is there no meditation in dream or in sleep? If you find out for whom there is jagrat (waking), it will be clear that dream and sleep are also for the same one. You are the witness of jagrat
--
Mr. T. K. S. Iyer asked Sri bhagavan about the source of sound.
M.: The general opinion is that para (sound) comes from the Muladhara
--
A brahmachari youth who has graduated in science has been waiting here for Grace for the last four or five months in order that some job might drop on him like a ripe apple from the tree. He has been making no other efforts to secure a job. His brother yesterday came here to take him away to his parents. But the youth declined to go. An appeal was made to Sri bhagavan.
Sri bhagavan said: I do not tell anyone to come nor ask him to go.
Everyone pleases himself here. He says he finds peace in the hall and he also wants a job. Evidently the job must be found in the hall itself so that his peace may not be disturbed. Peace is not in the hall. It is in the repose of the Self. It can be gained anywhere.
Some days later the youth threw away his sacred thread and appeared before Sri bhagavan with his limbs shaking, which the young man later described as his Bliss (ananda). Sri bhagavan told him not to make a habit of sitting in front of Him in the hall and ordered him out. Furthermore He continued: Even a fledgling is protected by the parent birds only till such time it grows its wings. It is not protected for ever. Similarly with devotees. I have shown the way. You must now be able to follow it up and find peace wherever you are.
The young man thinks that Sri bhagavan gave him upadesa in the following words: The self (i.e. ego) must be subdued by oneself.
The man however has refused the offer of a job to him in one of the local schools and thinks that he has been given a mighty job by the
Hill or by Sri bhagavan. What that job is the world will know later, he says. He had further anticipated all this days occurrences some months ago and had foretold them to his mother and to his friends.
He is further happy at the happenings.
Sri bhagavan however compared him to another man who is in no way of the right type. And yet the boy thinks that he is bhagavan in embryo. Later he turned mad and died.
Talk 301.
A gentleman enthusiastically recounted several of his experiences on following Sri bhagavans instructions and incidentally mentioned that he and Sri bhagavan were born on the same day of the week and bore the same name ....
Sri bhagavan completed it, adding The same Self is in both.
Talk 302.
A young man from Trichy asked Sri bhagavan on the mention in
Upadesa Manjari of atyanta vairagyam (total dispassion) as the qualification of a ripe disciple. He continued: What is vairagya?
--
A Swiss lady described a photism she had to Sri bhagavan. While she was sitting with her eyes wide open, she saw Sri bhagavans face becoming cherub-like and draped in glorious flowers. She was drawn in love towards that child-like face.
M.: The vision is in your mind. Your love is the cause. Paul Brunton saw me as a giant figure; you saw me like a child. Both are visions.
--
Sri bhagavan continued: Probably you had been thinking of a child and that appeared in the vision ......
D.: Yes, only of Siva of His child-like face ....
--
After a few minutes bhagavan continued: You will shortly go to sleep. When you wake up in the morning you will say I slept well and happily. What happened in sleep is your real nature. That continues now too; otherwise it will not be your real nature. Get the state of sleep even now; it is Siva.
Have we got a form? Find that out before you think of Sivas form.
--
The visitors were talking among themselves and one of them said: We, though familiar with our traditional teachings, are unable to follow these teachings (meaning Sri bhagavans). How can the foreigners unfamiliar with our ways follow Sri bhagavans teachings so easily?
He seemed to sympathise with their attempts to understand us in spite of their handicaps, and also to pity them for want of proper equipment.
Sri bhagavan remarked finally: Visions are better than no visions.
They get interested in that way. They do not take to foreign ideas; when once they do it, they stick on. So much for their merits.
Sri bhagavan later referred to Sivaprakasam Pillais vision. Visions are not external. They appear only internally. If external they must assert themselves without there being a seer. In that case what is the warranty for their existence? The seer only.
Talk 306.
--
Again reverting to Tiruvachagam, Sri bhagavan said: All the four foremost saints have given out their experiences in the very first stanza. (1) Undifferentiated worship. (2) Never-failing remembrance. (3) Unrisen thought. (4) The ego is not, the Self is.
All mean the same.
--
Mr. Shamanna from Mysore asked Sri bhagavan: Kindly explain
Aham Sphurana (the light of I-I).
--
Sphurana. This is natural to the Jnani and is itself called jnana by jnanis, or bhakti by bhaktas. Though ever present, including
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi in sleep, it is not perceived. It cannot be known in sleep all at once. It must first be realised in the waking state, for it is our true nature underlying all the three states. Efforts must be made only in the jagrat state and the Self realised here and now. It will afterwards be understood and realised to be continuous
--
Sri bhagavan said: The Non-self is untouchable. The social untouchability is man-made, whereas the other untouchability is natural and divine.
D.: Should the untouchables be allowed into our temples?
--
At 5-30 p.m. the Swiss lady complains to Sri bhagavan that she gets a headache if meditation be prolonged for some time.
M.: If the meditator and meditation be understood to be the same there will be no headache or similar complaints.
--
Mr. Greenlees: bhagavan said yesterday that, while one is engaged in search for God within, outer work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is explained that while he sought Krishna (the
Self) during his lectures to students, he forgot where his body was and went on talking of Krishna. This rouses doubt whether work can safely be left to itself. Should one keep part-attention on the physical work?
--
In yesterdays answers, Sri bhagavan said that the Self is pure consciousness in deep slumber, and He also indicated the Self of the transition from sleep to the waking state as the ideal for realisation.
He was requested to explain the same.
Sri bhagavan graciously answered: The Self is pure consciousness in sleep; it evolves as aham (I) without the idam (this) in the transition stage; and manifests as aham (I) and idam (this) in the waking state.
The individuals experience is by means of aham (I) only. So he must aim at realisation in the way indicated (i.e., by means of the transitional I).
--
One of the attendants asked: Sri bhagavan has said: Reality and myth are both the same. How is it so?
M.: The tantriks and others of the kind condemn Sri Sankaras philosophy as maya vada without understanding him aright. What does he say?
--
M.: Because dwiteeyadvai bhayam bhavati - fear is always of a second one. Of what are you afraid?
D.: By reason of the perception of the body, the senses, the world,
--
Ekamevadwiteeyam = Only one without a second, representing Karma, Yoga, bhakti and Jnana convey the same meaning.
They are only the single Truth presented in different aspects.
--
In the course of an informal conversation Sri bhagavan pointed out that Self-Realisation is possible only for the fit. The vasanas must be eliminated before jnana dawns. One must be like Janaka for jnana to dawn. One must be ready to sacrifice everything for the Truth.
Complete renunciation is the index of fitness.
--
While explaining stanza 6 in Arunachala Ashtaka, Sri bhagavan observed as follows:
The final word in the previous stanza asks, Is there one? The initial words in the present stanza answer, Yes, there is the One..... It proceeds, Though it is the only One, yet by its wonderful power it gets reflected on the tiny dot I (the ego) otherwise known as ignorance or the aggregate of latent tendencies; this reflected light is relative knowledge. This, according to ones prarabdha (past karma now fructifying), manifests the inner latent tendencies as the outer gross world and withdraws the gross external world as the subtle internal tendencies; such power is called mind in the subtle plane and brain in the physical plane. This mind or brain acts as the magnifier to that
--
(1) While in Skandasramam, Sri bhagavan saw a white toad, small and long, at a distance of about 10 feet from Him. Sri bhagavan stared at it and it stared at Him. Suddenly, it took a long jump and lodged itself precisely on one of the eyes of Sri bhagavan who quickly closed it and so it was not injured.
(2) There were two peacocks which used to strut with their feathers spread out like a spangled fan. A cobra too used to take part in the pastime and raised its hood and moved about in their midst.
(3) Sri bhagavan says that the peacock, as soon as it sights a green lizard, goes straight to it and meekly places its neck down before the lizard which bites it off and kills the peacock.
(4) Rangaswami Iyengar was once out on the hill. A leopard was nearby. He threw a stone. It turned towards him. He hurried away for his life. Sri bhagavan met him on the way and asked what the matter was. Iyengar simply said leopard as he was running. Sri bhagavan went where the beast was and it moved away soon after. All this happened at the time of the plague. Leopards used to roam freely by the side of the temple, sometimes in twos and threes.
(5) Sri bhagavan said, A frog is often compared to a yogi. It remains quiet for a long time, the only sign of life being the rhythmic movement of the under-skin below the neck.
Again frogs can remain for extraordinary long periods with their animation suspended. They are said to swallow their tongues.
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi island. Sri bhagavan emphasised the point that the mental approach accomplishes the purpose earlier than physical action.
(7) Sri bhagavan related the following funny anecdote; Ezhuthachan, a great Malayali saint and author, had a few fish concealed in him when he entered the temple. Some enemy reported it to the worshippers in the temple. The man was searched and taken to the king. The king asked him Why did you take the fish into the temple? He replied: It is not my fault. I had it concealed in my clothes. The others exposed the fish in the temple. The fault lies in exposure. Excreta within the body are not considered filthy; but when excreted, they are considered filthy. So also with this.
12th January, 1937
--
M.: Think of bhagavan. How will the affairs of the world distract
Him? You and they are in Him.
--
In answer to a question by a long resident attendant Sri bhagavan said: Everybody complains of the restlessness of the mind. Let the mind be found and then they will know. True, when a man sits down to meditate thoughts rush up by dozens. The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The attempt to push through the barrage of thoughts is unsuccessful. If one can by any means abide in the Self it is good.
For those who are unable to do so, chanting or meditation (Japa or dhyana) is prescribed. It is like giving a piece of chain to an elephant
--
The audience in the hall were very attentively listening. One of them, a sincere devotee of Sri bhagavan, was so impressed by it that he soon lost himself. He later described his experience as follows:
I was long wondering where the current starts, within the body or elsewhere. Suddenly, my body grew tenuous until it disappeared. The enquiry Who am I? went on very clearly and forcibly. The sound of I-I-I alone persisted. There was one vast expanse and nothing more. There was a hazy perception of the occurrences in the hall. I knew that people stood up to salute at the end of the Vedic chant. I
--
Sri bhagavan listened to his words and was silent for some minutes.
A few observations fell from his lips:
--
D.: Sri bhagavan has said in one of the works that the japa must be traced to its source. Is it not the mind that is meant?
M.: All these are only the workings of the mind. Japa helps to fix the mind to a single thought. All other thoughts are first subordinated until they disappear. When it becomes mental it is called dhyana.
--
In the morning Sri bhagavan read out a short passage from St. Estella in the Tamil Ramakrishna Vijayam. Its purport is: Your enemies are lust, passion, etc. If you feel injured turn within and find out the cause of the injury. It is not external to you. The external causes are mere superimpositions. If you cannot injure yourself, will the all-merciful
God injure you in any manner?
Sri bhagavan further said that St. Estella was a good saint, whose teachings were quite sound.
Talk 330.
Sri bhagavan, being asthmatic, is hoarse in throat. Oranges were brought as offerings. Pieces were distributed as usual. Sri bhagavan was clearing His throat and was obliged to spit out the orange in His mouth. He said that He had to spit it out. A gentleman said: Probably, it does not suit Sri bhagavans health.
M.: Would you say so if you had brought the fruits, instead of the other person?
--
League, asked Sri bhagavan about the spread of Peace in the world.
Sri bhagavan replied that if one gains the Peace of the Self it will spread itself without any effort on the part of the individual. When one is not oneself peaceful, how can that one spread peace in the world?
The lady asked if it was not true that the East has a scientific approach to the Realisation of the Self.
--
The lady was then told of the pamphlet, Who am I? She agreed to read it before asking further questions of Sri bhagavan.
Talk 332.
--
Sri bhagavan said that he felt no sensation in His legs though they were massaged. If they serve the purpose of walking what does it matter if sensation is lost? he asked. Then in the course of conversation he related that a ray of light has been found which, when projected, does not reveal the operator but enables him to witness the scene. So it is with siddhas. They are only pure light and can see others, whereas, they cannot be seen by others. For example Prabhulinga, while touring in the North, came across Goraknath. The latter displayed his yogic
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi powers e.g., when his arm was cut by a sword, the sword was blunted without inflicting injury on him. This is making the body proof against injury (kayasiddhi). Prabhulinga offered himself to be cut. When the sword was thrust, it passed through and through his body as if it was air and there was no injury on the body. Gorak was astonished and offered himself as the disciple of Prabhulinga.
--
Sri bhagavan spoke very appreciatively of Nayana, i.e., Kavyakantha
Ganapathi Muni, for about an hour, how he wrote Uma Sahasram and Hara Sahasram, how he taught his students, how he engaged in dispute with bhattasri Narayana Sastri, how meek and humble he was though so learned and capable, etc.
Sri bhagavan related how Nakkirar, a Sanga Pulavar (Poet), faced the wrath of Siva on questioning some composition of Siva in Tamil, how he was taken captive by a spirit and afterwards released.
Nakkirar was doing tapas on the bank of a tirtha. A leaf fell down from a tree; half the leaf touched the water and the other half was on the ground. Suddenly the water-half became a fish and the land-half became a bird. Each of them was united to the other by the leaf and struggled to go into its own element. Nakkirar was watching it in wonder and suddenly a spirit came down from above and carried him away to a cave where were already 999 captives all of whom were tapo bhrashta (those who had fallen away from their austerities).
--
Srimad bhagavad Gita asked some questions:
D.: How to realise the Self?
--
The questioner retired. Later, Sri bhagavan said: Divine sight means
Self-luminosity. The world divya shows it. The full word means the Self. Who is to bestow a divine eye? And who is to see? Again, people read in the books, hearing, reflection and one-pointedness are necessary. They think that they must pass through savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi before attaining Realisation.
--
M.: The sastras say: By karma, bhakti and so on. My attendant asked the same question once before. He was told, By karma dedicated to God. It is not enough that one thinks of God while doing the karma, but one must continually and unceasingly think of Him. Then alone will the mind become pure.
The attendant applies it to himself and says, It is not enough that I serve
Sri bhagavan physically. But I must unceasingly remember Him.
To another person, who asked the same question, bhagavan said:
Quest of the Self, meaning, I am-the-body idea must vanish. (Atma vichara = disappearance of dehatma buddhi).
--
Sri bhagavan referred the lady to a few stanzas in Truth Revealed and to Thayumanavar. She retired.
Later Sri bhagavan said the whole Vedanta is contained in the two
Biblical statements:
--
Mr. K. S. N. Iyer, a Railway Officer, said to Sri bhagavan that the compiler of Cosmic Consciousness considers realisation to be possible only within certain limits of age in an individuals life.
M.: Does anyone say I must come into being before or after some age?
--
With regard to Siva Visishtadvaita, (i.e., Saiva Siddhanta), Sri bhagavan said: Garudoham bhavana I am Garuda - conception does not make a garuda of a man. All the same the poisonous effects of snake-bite are cured. Similarly with Sivoham bhavana (I-am-Siva) conception also.
One is not transformed into Siva, but the ruinous effects of the ego are put an end to. Or the person retains his individuality but remains pure, i.e., fit for constituting a part of the body of Siva. Becoming so he can enjoy the Supreme Bliss. That is liberation - say the Saiva Siddhantis.
--
Scripture Atmanastu kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati - (All are dear because of the love of the Self) becomes clear.
A question arises, why there should be suicides in that case.
--
Mrs Jennings: Sri bhagavan says that the state of Realisation is freedom from the tyranny of thoughts. Have not the thoughts got a place in the scheme of things - maybe on a lower plane?
M.: The thoughts arise from the I-thought which in its turn arises from the Self. Therefore the Self manifests as I and other thoughts.
--
The American lady again: Does complete surrender mean that all noise and disturbance in our environment, even during meditation, must be accepted? Or should we seek a cave in a mountain for solitude? Did not bhagavan do this?
M.: There is no going or returning. The Self is said to be unaffected by the elements, infinite, eternal. It cannot move. There is no place to move in for the Self.
--
If bhagavan is the body you may ask that body. But understand him whom you address as bhagavan. He is not the body. He is the Self.
Then she referred to an article in Harijan where it is said that everything is God and nothing belongs to the individual, and so on.
--
The lady then thanked Sri bhagavan and retired.
Talk 342.
At 11 p.m. in the night a group of Andhras came from Guntur, consisting of a middle-aged woman with a sad but firm look, her mother and two men. They requested audience with Sri bhagavan.
The woman said to Sri bhagavan:
When my son was in the womb my husb and died. The son was born posthumous. He grew up all right for five years. Then he was attacked by infantile paralysis. When nine he was bedridden. Nevertheless he was bright and cheerful. For two years he was in that condition and now they say that he is dead. I know that he is only sleeping and will awake soon. When they said that he had collapsed I was shocked. I saw in a vision a sadhu who appeared to pass his hands over the childs body and the child awoke refreshed. I believe that sadhu is yourself. Please come and touch the boy so that he may get up, she prayed.
Sri bhagavan asked what the doctor said.
She replied, They say that he is dead. But what do they know? I have brought the boy all the way from Guntur to this place.
--
When asked, Sri bhagavan said: It is said of some saints that they revived the dead. They, too, did not revive all the dead. If that could be done there will be no world, no death, no cemetery, etc.
One man asked: The mothers faith was very remarkable. How could she have had such a hopeful vision and still be disappointed?
--
Sri bhagavan interrupted: Do not look for sastras. What is jivanmukti? What is ananda? Liberation itself is in doubt. What are all these words? Can they be independent of the Self.
D.: Only we have no experience of all this.
--
Sri bhagavan continued, after interval: Destroy the power of mind by seeking it. When the mind is examined its activities cease automatically.
Looking for the source of mind is another method. The source may be said to be God or Self or consciousness.
--
Brahman), and Brahmaivaham (Brahman alone am I) is termed nididhyasana or atmanusandhana, i.e., constancy in the Self. This is otherwise called bhakti, Yoga and Dhyana.
Atmanusandhana has been likened to churning the curd to draw forth butter, the mind being compared to the churning rod, the heart to the curd and the practice of constancy in the Self to the process of churning. Just as by churning the curd butter is extracted and by friction fire is kindled, even so, by unswerving vigilant constancy in the Self, ceaseless like the unbroken filamentary flow of oil, is generated the natural or changeless trance or nirvikalpa samadhi, which readily and spontaneously yields that direct, immediate, unobstructed and universal perception of Brahman, which is at once Knowledge and Experience and which transcends time and space.
--
Sri bhagavan observed: How does one know the world to be transitory?
Unless something permanent is held, the transitory nature of the world cannot be understood. Because the man is already the Self, and the Self is the Eternal Reality, his attention is drawn to it; and he is instructed to rivet his attention on the Eternal Reality, the Self.
--
Later Sri bhagavan continued: It is said I AM that I AM. That means a person must abide as the I. He is always the I alone.
He is nothing else. Yet he asks Who am I? A victim of illusion would ask Who am I? and not a man fully aware of himself.
--
Sri bhagavan was recounting some of the incidents of His stay in
Tiruvannamalai:
--
The news spread, that Jada Padmana bhaswami, who was living on the Hill, had arranged with Palaniswami to take Sri bhagavan to the hill near his cottage. Palaniswami, without informing Sri bhagavan, managed to take Him there. A great reception awaited Him. A seat was arranged for Him, milk and fruits were offered and J. P. waited on Him with great kindness.
3. J.P., though represented in the book Self-Realisation as having sought to injure Sri bhagavan, was really kind to Him and his pranks were misunderstood to be acts of malice. His only weakness was that he wanted to make capital out of Sri bhagavan for raising funds; which, of course, the Maharshi did not like. There was nothing wrong with J.P.
4. Madhavaswami, the attendant, asked if Sri bhagavan remained without food for months in the underground cellar in the temple.
M.: Um! - Um! - food was forthcoming - Milk, fruits - but whoever thought of food.
5. While staying in the mango-tree cave Sri bhagavan used to string garlands for the images in the temple, with lotuses, yellow flowers
(sarakonnai) and green leaves.
6. After the completion of the Kalyanamantapam Sri bhagavan had stayed there one night in disguise.
7. When He was sitting under a tree in the temple compound He was covered with dirt, for He never used to bathe. In the cold nights of
--
8. When living on the Hill Sri bhagavan used to help in the pooja of
J. P., ringing the bell, washing the vessels, etc., all along remaining silent. He also used to read medical works, e.g., Ashtanga Hridayam in Malayalam and point out the treatment contained in the book for the patients who sought the other sadhus help. That sadhu did not himself know how to read these works.
--
It is 8-20 p.m. Sri bhagavan has returned after supper and stretched
Himself on the sofa. The light is dim; there are three men sitting on the floor; one is busy copying something from a journal; another is wrapt in meditation; and the third is looking around, having nothing to do. The hall is silent but for occasional clearing of the throat by Sri bhagavan.
Madhavaswami, the attendant devotee, slips in noiselessly with a sheaf of betels in hand. He moves to the table. Sri bhagavan who is reclining on the sofa, sees him and calls out, yet kindly; Sh, Sh; what are you doing?
The attendant softly murmurs, Nothing, leaves the betel there and fumbles hesitatingly.
--
Sri bhagavan: Kasturi Pill - one after another, every day. The bottle will be empty - and more is ordered. I dont want it.
A devotee skilfully blames the olla podrida () of the day-meal for the indifferent health of Sri bhagavan.
M.: No - no - It was well made. It was good. silence, but for expectoration and eructation. After a few minutes, the attendant slips out and returns with a bottle in hand, goes near Sri bhagavan and stretches out a pill saying: Cummin seed-pill. Sri bhagavan softly murmurs, It contains
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi lime juice: lime juice is not good for this. One devotee Rangaswamy
--
Sri bhagavan continues: Who is to munch it?
Rangaswamy Iyengar: It need not be munched. It may be kept in the mouth and sucked. The attendant hastily agrees. Yes - yes it is only to be sucked.
--
At about 7-30 a.m. Sri bhagavan was climbing up the hill after breakfast. Padananda went and prostrated, stood up and said, All right, I have had darsan ... I shall return.
Sri bhagavan smilingly, Whose darsan? Why dont you say that you gave darsan to me?
At about 9 a.m. a devotee from Poona (Mr. Parkhi) saluted Sri
bhagavan and read out his ashtaka praying to Sri bhagavan for
Grace. The piece finishes with a prayer for quick liberation (jhatiti mukti) and the devotee emphasised it.
--
Brunton that his wife has since lost that peace of mind which she had gained by her visits to Sri bhagavan; so he desires that Sri bhagavan may be pleased to restore the same peace.
When requested, Sri bhagavan said, It is due to weakness of mind that peace once gained is later lost.
Talk 361.
--
During the time Sri bhagavan was staying in Virupaksha Cave, Sri bhagavan and Mudaliar Swami were walking together behind the Skandasramam site.
There was a huge rock about 15 feet high; it was a cleft, a girl (a shepherdess) was standing there crying. Sri bhagavan asked the reason of her sorrow.
She said, A sheep of mine has slipped into this cleft; so I am crying. Sri
--
There were many new visitors this day. Two of them were speaking of Ganapati Muni in Sri bhagavans presence. Sri bhagavan put in a few words in their talk:
(1) Some say that jnana and upasana are the two wings with which to fly to mukti. What is jnana? What is upasana? Jnana is ever present. That is the ultimate goal also. When an effort is made the effort is called upasana; when it is effortless it is jnana, which is the same as mukti.
--
Sri bhagavan said: Who sees the externalities? Or do they say that they exist? If so let the world say that it exists.
Again, if the world is a projection from the interior it must be recognised that it is projected simultaneously with the I-thought.
--
Sri bhagavan added that Ganapati Muni used to say that it was easy to move forward but impossible to move backward.
Then Sri bhagavan remarked: However far one goes there he is.
Where is moving backward? The same truth is contained in the mantra in Isa-Upanishad.
--
(inspired poet), Sri bhagavan said; It is said that while he was making tapasya Siva appeared and gave him milk or honey to drink, after which he became asu kavi.
20th February, 1937
--
As Sri bhagavan was continuing in the same strain, a visitor asked how to overcome the identity of the Self with the body.
M.: What about sleep?
--
A young girl of 9 or 10, whose mother is a Research Scholar in Sanskrit in the University of Madras, accompanied by Mr. Maurice Frydman met Sri bhagavan in Palakothu at about 12 noon. Sri bhagavan, as usual with Him, kindly smiled on her. She asked Sri bhagavan: Why is there misery on earth?
M.: Due to Karma.
--
Sri bhagavan almost laughed and was very pleased with her. Later he was coaxing her to read something on returning to the hall. Since then He is watching her.
22nd February, 1937
--
They are quiet and simple. Both of them tearfully took leave and the gentleman even sobbed out a prayer for Sri bhagavans Grace. Sri
bhagavan gazed at them, with his lips parted showing the row of white teeth. His eyes also had a tear in them.
--
Sri bhagavan was in the cattle-shed. People were working and he watched their work for a short time. Then someone came and said that a large number of visitors were waiting in the hall. Sri
bhagavan in His calm way said: Yes - yes, you do your work. Let
--
Sri bhagavan. One of them kneeled and asked: I am performing hathayoga, namely basti, dhauti, neti, etc. I find a blood vessel hardened in the ankle. Is it a result of Yoga?
M.: The blood-vessel would have hardened under any circumstances. It does not trouble you as much now as it would otherwise. Hathayoga is a cleaning process. It also helps peace of mind, after leading you to pranayama.
--
A little later Sri bhagavan continued:
Dhyana means fight. As soon as you begin meditation other thoughts will crowd together, gather force and try to sink the single thought to which you try to hold. The good thought must gradually gain strength by repeated practice. After it has grown strong the other thoughts will be put to flight.
--
Later Sri bhagavan continued:
When dhyana is well established it cannot be given up. It will go on automatically even when you are engaged in work, play or enjoyment. It will persist in sleep too.
--
In bhakti marga (path of devotion) these are the precursors to samadhi.
D.: Are they not so in the path of jnana?
--
Highness saluted Sri bhagavan placing his head on Sri bhagavans feet and said:
I have read Sri bhagavans life and long had a desire to meet Him, but my circumstances are such that intentions of this kind cannot easily be carried into effect. Nor can I stay here as other disciples can, considering all my limitations. While I remain here for about 15 minutes, I shall now pray only for Thy Grace.
(On departure H. H. again saluted Sri bhagavan as before and left after presenting two fine shawls and some money to the office).
13th March, 1937
--
Their Highnesses The Maharajah and the Maharani of Travancore who arrived at Tiruvannamalai by the 8 a.m., train visited the Asramam at 4-15 p.m. The public were excluded from the hall where bhagavan sat. Even devotees who were daily visiting the hall were by a sad mistake excluded from the interview. The Royal party was introduced to Sri bhagavan by a retired
District Magistrate. Two aides-de-camp, the Private Secretary to H. H. The
--
Her Highness put some questions expressing her doubts and they were all explained by Sri bhagavan. H. H. The Maharajah also took part in the discussion. The whole conversation was in Tamil and Malayalam.
During the visit of the Royal Family of Travancore, Her Highness appeared very cultured, vivacious and conversant with Malayalam,
--
In a conversation with an Andhra visitor, Sri bhagavan quoted:
Asamsayam mahabaho mano durnigraham chalam
--
To explain vairagya Sri bhagavan again quoted:
Sankalpapra bhavan kamams tyaktva sarvan aseshatah
--
One Tirumalpad of Nilambur, a Malayali gentleman, asked Sri bhagavan for an explanation of Atma Vidya. (Knowledge of the Self.)
M.: Sri bhagavan explained this short piece of 5 stanzas as follows:
Chidambaram is the famous place of pilgrimage associated with Nandanar who sang that Atma Vidya is most difficult of attainment. Muruganar (a long-standing devotee of Sri bhagavan) began however that Atma Vidya is the easiest of attainments. Ayye atisula bham is the burden of the song.
In explanation of this extraordinary statement, he argued that Atma being the Self is eternally obvious even to the least of men. The original statement and the subsequent reasoning are incompatible because there need be no attainment if the Self is the substratum of all selves and so obvious too. Naturally he could not pursue the theme further and laid the first four lines composed by him before
Sri bhagavan for completion.
Sri bhagavan admitted the truth of the disciples statement and pointed out why the Self, though obvious, is yet hidden. It is the wrong identity of the Self with the body, etc.
D.: How did the wrong identity arise?
--
(It was 5 p.m. Sri bhagavan left the hall and the gentleman left for the station).
Talk 381.
Mr. Bose, the Bengali Engineer, asked the meaning of the last stanza of Atma Vidya (Knowledge of the Self). Sri bhagavan explained on the following lines:
There is the world perceived, the perception is only apparent; it requires location for existence and light. Such existence and light are simultaneous with the rise of mind. So the physical existence and illumination are part of mental existence and illumination. The latter is not absolute, for the mind rises and sinks. The mind has its substratum in the Self which is self-evident, i.e. its existence and self-luminosity are obvious. That is absolute being, continuous in sleep, waking and dream states also.
--
Sri bhagavan about manolaya.
Sri bhagavan said that everything is contained in Upadesa Saram, a copy of which the man was holding in his hand.
D.: What is mind?
--
Swami Lokesananda, a sanyasi, asked Sri bhagavan: Is there prarabdha for a jivanmukta?
M.: Who is the questioner? From whom does the question proceed?
--
D.: According to the creed that there is no creation (ajatavada), the explanations of Sri bhagavan are faultless; but are they admissible in other schools?
M.: There are three methods of approach in Advaita vada.
--
If, for instance, Sri bhagavan be bitten by an insect, is there no sensation?
M.: There is the sensation and there is also the dehatma buddhi. The latter is common to both Jnani and ajnani with this difference, that the ajnani thinks dehaiva Atma (only the body is myself), whereas the Jnani knows all is of the Self (Atmamayam sarvam), or (sarvam khalvidam Brahma) all this is Brahma. If there be pain let it be. It is also part of the Self. The Self is poorna (perfect).
--
The conversation turned on vasanas. Sri bhagavan said that good tendencies and bad ones (suvasana and kuvasana) are concomitant
- the one cannot exist without the other. Maybe that the one class predominates. Good tendencies (suvasana) are cultivated and they must also be finally destroyed by jnana.
A young prodigy was mentioned. Sri bhagavan remarked that latent impressions of previous births (purva janma samskara) were strong in him.
D.: How does it manifest as the ability to cite well-known saints? Is it vasana in the form of a seed only?
--
Mr. Vankata Rao, an Andhra gentleman, in the course of conversation with Sri bhagavan, was told:
Until you gain jnana you cannot understand the state of a Jnani.
--
D.: What is the relation between bhakti and jnana?
M.: Eternal, unbroken, natural state is jnana. Does it not imply love of Self? Is it not bhakti?
D.: Idol worship does not seem good. They worship the formless
--
Any bhavana premises a God with attri butes (saguna). Moreover, where is the use of discussing the form or formlessness of God?
Find out if you have a form. You can then understand God.
--
D.: This is Samkhya Yoga. Being the culmination of all kinds of other yogas, how can it be understood to start with? Is not bhakti antecedent to it?
M.: Has not Sri Krishna started the Gita with Sankhya?
--
Later Sri bhagavan continued:
There are so many theories, scriptural and scientific. Have they reached any finality? They cannot. Brahman is said to be subtler than the subtlest, wider than the widest. Anu is an atom, infinitesimal. It ends in subtle perception. The subtlety is of the sukshma body, i.e., the mind. Beyond the mind there is the Self. The greatest of things are also conceptions, the conceptions are of the mind; beyond the mind there is the Self. So the Self is subtler than the subtlest.
--
With regard to presents to Sri bhagavan, He observed: Why do they bring presents? Do I want them? Even if I refuse they thrust presents on me. What for? If I accept them I must yield to their wishes. It is like giving a bait to catch the fish. Is the angler anxious to feed the fish? No, he is anxious to feed on the fish.
Swami Lokesananda, a sannyasi: What is meant by jnana and vijnana?
--
D.: When I read Sri bhagavans works I find that investigation is said to be the one method for Realisation.
M.: Yes, that is vichara.
--
M.: The yogis call it Kundalini Sakti. It is the same as vritti 1 of the form of God ( bhagavatakara vritti) of the bhaktas and vritti of the form of Brahman (Brahmakara vritti) of the jnanis. It must be preliminary to Realisation. The sensation produced may be said to be hot.
D.: Kundalini is said to be of the shape of a serpent but vrittis cannot be so.
--
M.: It is all meant to help the bhavana (imagery). There are books dealing with six centres (shadchakra) and many other lakshyas
(centres), internal and external. The description of the Heart is one among so many lakshyas. But it is not necessary. It is only the source of the I-thought. That is the ultimate truth.
--
Later Sri bhagavan continued: The intricate maze of philosophy of different schools is said to clarify matters and reveal the Truth.
But in fact they create confusion where no confusion need exist.
--
D.: There is a short account of the spiritual experiences of St. Theresa, in the March number of the Prabuddha bharata. She was devoted to a figure of the Madonna which became animated to her sight, and she was in bliss. Is it the same as Saktipata?
M.: The animated figure indicates depth of meditation (dhyana bala).
--
Srimad bhagavad Gita says the same in a different way, We two are not only now but have ever been so.
D.: Does not the Guru take a concrete form?
--
The Gita says: param bhavam ajanantah (Bh. Gita IX - II) - that those who cannot understand the transcendental nature (of Sri
Krishna) are fools, deluded by ignorance.
--
D.: I believe bhagavan also says so. Prof. Radhakrishnan in his Indian
Philosophy says that in his Brahma Sutra Commentary Sri Sankara makes a distinction between the two states. Is it a fact? If so, what is it? How can there be any distinction from the viewpoint of reality?
--
In the course of another conversation Sri bhagavan said: Photisms add zest to meditation and nothing more.
16th April, 1937
--
Japa may be done even while engaged in other work. That which is, the One Reality. It may be represented by a form, a japa, mantra, vichara or any kind of attempt. All of them finally resolve themselves into that One Single Reality. bhakti, vichara, japa are only different forms of our efforts to keep out the unreality. The unreality is an obsession at present. Reality is our true nature. We are wrongly persisting in unreality, that is, thoughts and worldly activities. Cessation of these will reveal the Truth. Our attempts are directed towards keeping them out. It is done by thinking of the Reality only. Although it is our true nature it looks as if we are thinking of the Reality. What we do really amounts to the removal of obstacles for the revelation of our true Being. Meditation or vichara is thus a reversion to our true nature.
D.: Are our attempts sure to succeed?
--
While speaking of the Brain and the Heart Sri bhagavan recalled an incident of old days as follows:Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni once argued that the brain was the most important centre and Sri bhagavan maintained that the Heart was even more so. There were others watching the discourse. A few days after
Sri bhagavan received a letter containing a short poem in English on that discourse from a young boy, N. S. Arunachalam, who had not yet matriculated.
That poem is remarkable for its poetic imagination. Sri bhagavan,
Kavyakantha, and the assemblage of other persons are represented as the Heart, the brain and the body respectively, and again as the sun, the moon and the earth also. The light from the sun is reflected on the moon and the earth is illumined. Similarly the brain acts by consciousness derived from the Heart and the body is thus protected.
This teaching of Sri bhagavan is found in Ramana Gita also. The
Heart is the most important centre from which vitality and light radiate to the brain, thus enabling it to function. The vasanas are enclosed in the Heart in their subtlest form, later flowing to the brain which reflects them highly magnified corresponding to a cinema-show at every stage. That is how the world is said to be nothing more than a cinema-show.
Sri bhagavan also added:- Were the vasanas in the brain instead of in the Heart they must be extinguished if the head is cut off so that reincarnations will be at an end. But it is not so. The Self obviously safeguards the vasanas in its closest proximity, i.e. within itself in the
Heart, just as a miser keeps his most valued possessions (treasure) with himself and never out of contact. Hence the place where the vasanas are, is the Self, i.e., the Heart, and not the brain (which is only the theatre for the play of the vasanas from the greenhouse of the Heart.)
--
Review, wondering if any instruments could be of use in detecting the Heart-centre and if proper subjects were available for recording the experience of the adepts in the spiritual path, and so on. Others were speaking. Sri bhagavan said: In the incident mentioned in the book Self-Realization that I became unconscious and symptoms of death supervened, I was all along aware. I could feel the action of the physical heart stopped and equally the action of the Heart-centre unimpaired. This state lasted about a quarter of an hour.
We asked if it was true that some disciples have had the privilege of feeling
Sri bhagavans Heart-centre to be on the right by placing their hands on
Sri bhagavans chest. Sri bhagavan said, Yes. (Mr. Viswanatha Iyer,
Narayana Reddi and others have said they felt Sri bhagavans Heartcentre to be on the right by placing their hands on his chest).
A devotee rightly observed that if hands could feel and locate the
--
Again after a few minutes Sri bhagavan continued: The mind functions both as light and as objects. If divested of things the light alone will remain over.
D.: But we must know that there is such light.
--
Theosophical Society as bright lights within the ocean of light which is nirvana. He asked Sri bhagavan how it could be possible, considering the Advaitic teaching that the nirvanic experience is the same as that of the pure consciousness of Being.
M.: Nirvana is Perfection. In the Perfect State there is neither subject nor object; there is nothing to see, nothing to feel, nothing to know.
--
With reference to the location of the Heart centre on the right side of the human body, Sri bhagavan said:I had been saying all along that the Heart centre was on the right, notwithstanding the refutation by some learned men that physiology taught them otherwise. I speak from experience. I knew it even in my home during my trances. Again during the incident related in the book Self-Realisation I had a very clear vision and experience. All of a sudden a light came from one side erasing the world vision in its course until it spread all round when the vision of the world was completely cut out. I felt the muscular organ on the left had stopped work, I could understand that the body was like a corpse, that the circulation of blood had stopped and the body became blue and motionless. Vasudeva Sastri embraced the body, wept over my death, but I could not speak. All the time I was feeling that the
Heart centre on the right was working as well as ever. This state continued
--
A middle-aged man prostrated himself before Sri bhagavan, who asked him about his well-being. After a few minutes Sri bhagavan recalled an incident saying that this was the only person whom Sri
bhagavan had slapped; it happened about 30 years earlier.
Sri bhagavan was living in Mulaippal Tirtha. There was a Jada Swami living in the neighbourhood (Mamarathu Guhai). This man, who was then about 8 years of age, used to play pranks with all, including Sri
bhagavan.
--
Palani Swami the attendant, was not there. So Sri bhagavan followed the boy to Jada Swamis place. Before bhagavan reached the place the boy had told the other that Brahmanaswami had sent him a bucket.
Jada Swami was wondering why! In a few minutes Maharshi reached the place and learnt what had passed. So he raised His hand to give a slap to the boy but the mind would not yield to slapping. But He argued within Himself and determined that the urchin should be slapped and so he did it.
--
Sri bhagavan altered it thus: Stomach addressing the prana: O Prana!
How troublesome you are to me! You never allow me to rest but continue loading me with food off and on. It is so difficult to get on with you.
Saying it Sri bhagavan laughed. Sri bhagavan often says that He is made to eat more than is good for Him.
21st May, 1937
--
Sri bhagavan, while speaking of the marriage ceremony among the
Brahmins, said that the Kasiyatra represents the bridegroom to be a vairagi-purusha. It is therefore right that he should be given a kanya
--
Once on a cold day Sri bhagavan was sitting in a cave on the hill with
His hands folded on the breast as a protection against the cold. Some
Andhra visitor had come; he broke a coconut and poured the cold juice on Sri bhagavans head as abhisheka; Sri bhagavan was surprised.
Talk 413.
--
Mr. G. V. Subbaramiah, a devotee, has written some short poems, which are interesting. Some of them refer to a child. Sri bhagavan said
God becomes a child, and vice versa. That means that the samskaras are yet latent in the child and thus its innocence is complete. When they are eradicated even a grown up man becomes a child once again, and thus remains God.
--
Sri bhagavan: Yes. The children are always in the home. We too are there but are dreaming and imagining that we are outside the home.
Sri bhagavan added: I have rendered the word youth (yuva) in Dakshinamurti Stotra by child (bala). This seems more appropriate.
To be reborn is to become children over again. One must be reborn before gaining jnana, i.e., recovering the natural state.
--
Sri bhagavan read out some stanzas on the greatness of the Tamil language from the preface to a Tamil-Tamil Dictionary and explained the references in a very interesting manner. Of the three tests for establishing the superiority of Saivism over Jainism, the first related to Tirujnanasambandar entering the royal presence for curing the
Pandya king of his illness. The queen was anxious because of his tender age, i.e., 12 years. Tirujnanasambandar set her doubts at rest by composing a stanza which said that, though tender, he was more than a match to the strong group of innumerable Jains. While reciting the stanza Sri bhagavan choked and could not proceed with it.
The second test was the fire leaving the cadjan leaf unburnt, and the third the cadjan leaves opposing the current of the river (Tiruvedakam).
Sri bhagavan also related the story of God Isvara begging food as an old man, taking food as a youth and saving the devotee woman as a babe, all at once.
He again pointed out like babe, lunatic, spirit (Balonmattapisachavat) describing the states of jnanis. There babe (bala) is given precedence over others.
--
Sri bhagavan said that Kamba Ramayana consists of 12,000 stanzas to Valmikis 24,000. Kambas can be understood only by the learned and not by all. Tulasidas had heard Kamba Ramayana recited to him in Hindi by a Tamil saint and later wrote his famous Ramayana.
Talk 417.
--
Asked if Sri bhagavan had read Kamba Ramayana, Sri bhagavan said: No. I have not read anything. All my learning is limited to what
I learnt before my 14th year.
Since then I have had no inclination to read or learn. People wonder how I speak of bhagavad Gita, etc. It is due to hearsay. I have not read Gita nor waded through commentaries for its meaning. When I hear a sloka I think that its meaning is clear and I say it. That is all and nothing more.
Similarly with my other quotations. They come out naturally. I realise that the Truth is beyond speech and intellect. Why then should I project the mind to read, understand and repeat stanzas, etc.? Their purpose is to know the Truth. The purpose having been gained, there is no use engaging in studies.
Someone remarked: If Sri bhagavan had been inclined to study there would not be a saint today.
M.: Probably all my studies were finished in past births and I was surfeit.
--
The week before the Mahapuja (3rd June, 1937) has brought many visitors including some relatives of Sri bhagavan. There is among them an elderly lady - the widow of Subbier in whose house Sri
bhagavan was living when he left home in August 1896.
Old memories revived when Sri bhagavan saw her.
He remembered how on a festive occasion he was asked to help her in making some modakas (delicacies), but he hesitated and finally refused, because he was obliged to change his clothes and he could put on only koupina (loin-cloth or codpiece) which made him feel shy.
--
Then Sri bhagavan remarked, If I refused to wear koupina once, I am now made to pay the penalty by wearing it always.
The lady recalled to her mind how Sri Ramana was suffering from headache for several days together.
Sri bhagavan said: Yes, yes! It was the month before I left Madura. It was not headache, but an inexpressible anguish which I suppressed at the time; these were however the outward symptoms which, I said, were due to headache. I remember how anxious you grew on account of my headache. You used to rub some ointment on my forehead every day.
My anguish continued until I left Madura and reached this place.
--
Sri bhagavan observed: There were rishis like Visvamitra who could duplicate the universe if they wished. They lived during the lifetime of Ravana who caused agony even to Sita and Rama among others. Could not Visvamitra have destroyed Ravana by his occult powers? Though capable he kept still. Why? The occurrences are known to the sages, but pass away without leaving an impression on their minds. Even a deluge will appear a trifle to them; they do not care for anything.
7th June, 1937
--
D.: I came here three years ago and Sri bhagavan said that will-power is necessary for strength of mind. Since then I have been desiring to cultivate it but without success.
M.: (No answer)
--
Purusha and Prakriti, Sri bhagavan said:
Purusha and Prakriti are only the bifurcation of the one Supreme.
--
M.: Dhyana or bhakti, which mean the same thing.
D.: What is meant by taking the name of God? How to reconcile the following two ideas?
--
Sri bhagavan remarked: People see the world. The perception implies the existence of a seer and the seen. The objects are alien to the seer. The seer is intimate, being the Self. They do not however turn their attention to finding out the obvious seer but run about analysing the seen. The more the mind expands, the farther it goes and renders Self-Realisation more difficult and complicated. The man must directly see the seer and realise the Self.
D.: So then, it amounts to synthesising phenomena and finding the one Reality behind.
--
Sri bhagavan has selected 10 stanzas from the famous work of Sri
Sankara - Sivananda Lahari - describing devotion ( bhakti):
(1) What is bhakti?
Just as the ankola fruit falling from the tree rejoins it or a piece of iron is drawn to magnet, so also thoughts, after rising up, lose themselves
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi in their original source. This is bhakti. The original source of thoughts is the feet of the Lord, Isvara. Love of His Feet forms bhakti. (61)
(2) Fruit of bhakti:
The thick cloud of bhakti, formed in the transcendental sky of the
Lords Feet, pours down a rain of Bliss (ananda) and fills the lake of mind to overflowing. Only then the jiva, always transmigrating to no useful end, has his real purpose fulfilled. (76)
(3) Where to place bhakti?
Devotion to gods, who have themselves their origin and end, can result in fruits similarly with origin and end. In order to be in Bliss everlasting our devotion must be directed to its source, namely the
--
(4) bhakti is a matter only for experience and not for words:
How can Logic or other polemics be of real use? Can the ghatapatas
--
(8) Karma Yoga also is bhakti:
To worship God with flowers and other external objects is troublesome. Only lay the single flower, the heart, at the feet of
--
I do japa, puja, etc.; nothing seems to satisfy me. Can Sri bhagavan kindly guide me?
M.: What is that you seek to gain? Everyone seeks happiness.
--
Sri bhagavan went out for a few minutes. On his return the same man asked:
Self-realised jnanis are seen to take food and do actions like others. Do they similarly experience the states of dream and of sleep?
--
Mr. Thomas, Professor of Sanskrit, University of Oxford, had presided over the Oriental Conference in Trivandrum and on his way to Calcutta he visited Sri bhagavan. He is an elderly gentleman with a broad forehead and a quiet manner. He speaks softly and slowly. He evinces great interest in oriental literature, especially Sanskrit. He had heard of the richness of
Tamil. He desired to know which of the English translations of Srimad
--
Telangs, etc. Sri bhagavan made mention of F. T. Brooks. Mr. Thomas desires one in metrical form because it is the proper vehicle for rasa (the essence) contained in it. Rasa is also Peace, he said.
M.: Yes, Brahman is only rasa.
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi was placed in his hands, on seeing which he asked what Sri bhagavan thought of castes.
M.: The castes relate to bodies and not to Self. The Self is Bliss. To realise Bliss one realises the Self. No need to worry oneself about caste, etc.
--
He also asked Sri bhagavan which of the methods was the best for the attainment of the goal. Is not Patanjalis the best?
M.: Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah - (Yoga is to check the mind from changing) - which is acceptable to all. That is also the goal of all.
The method is chosen according to ones own fitness. The goal for all is the same. Yet different names are given to the goal only to suit the process preliminary to reaching the goal. bhakti, Yoga, Jnana are all the same. Svasvarupanusandhanam bhaktirity abhidheeyate
(Self contemplation is called bhakti).
D.: Does Sri bhagavan advocate advaita?
M.: Dvaita and advaita are relative terms. They are based on the sense of duality. The Self is as it is. There is neither dvaita nor advaita.
--
D.: Does bhagavan give diksha (initiation)?
M.: Mowna (silence) is the best and the most potent diksha. That was practised by Sri Dakshinamurti. Touch, look, etc., are all of a lower order. Silence (mowna diksha) changes the hearts of all. There is no Guru and no disciple.
--
The Professor was thankful. He hoped to appreciate Sri bhagavans writings better after having seen Him and conversed with Him.
In the course of conversation, Sri bhagavan said that upasana and dhyana are possible so long as there is the mind and they must cease
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi with the cessation of the mind. They are mere preliminaries to final eradication of thoughts and the stillness of mind.
--
Sri bhagavan smiled and said, Go on, continue.
D.: Have you experienced nirvikalpa samadhi?
--
Another man asked: Can Sri bhagavan help us to realise the Truth?
M.: Help is always there.
--
D.: I am always at your feet. Will bhagavan give us some upadesha to follow? Otherwise how can I get the help living 600 miles away?
M.: That Sadguru is within.
--
D.: But surrender is bhakti yoga.
M.: Both are the same
--
D.: I know the Self as identical with the body. If the Self be different from the body let bhagavan tell me how to see the Self separate from the body. He has realised God. He can teach me.
M.: Why should the Self be separated from the body? Let the body remain as it is.
--
D.: Raja yoga realises through the body, senses, etc., and Sri bhagavan advises realisation by thinking. This is jnana yoga.
M.: How can you think without the body?
--
M.: It is to see the world as the Self of God. In the bhagavad Gita God is said to be various things and beings, and also the whole universe.
How to realise it or see it so? Can one see ones Self? Though not seen, can the Self be denied? What is the Truth?
|
1.24 - PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Efficacy of bhakti for modern times
MASTER: "For the Kaliyuga the path of devotion described by Nrada is best. Where can people find time now to perform their duties according to the scriptural injunctions?
--
Three yogas explained by Master "Innumerable are the ways that lead to God. There are the paths of jnna, of karma, and of bhakti. If you are sincere, you will attain God in the end, whichever path you follow. Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of yoga: jnanayoga, karma yoga, and bhaktiyoga.
"What is jnanayoga? The Jnni seeks to realize Brahman. He discriminates, saying, 'Not this, not this'. He discriminates, saying, 'Brahman is real and the universe illusory.' He discriminates between the Real and the unreal. As he comes to the end of discrimination, he goes into samdhi and attains the Knowledge of Brahman.
--
"What is bhaktiyoga? It is to keep the mind on God by chanting His name and glories.
For the Kaliyuga the path of devotion is easiest. This is indeed the path for this age.
--
"Therefore bhaktiyoga is prescribed for this age. By following this path one comes to God more easily than by following the others. One can undoubtedly, reach God by following the paths of jnna and karma, but they are very difficult paths.
God fulfils all desires of His devotees
" bhaktiyoga is the religion for this age. But that does not mean that the lover of God will reach one goal and the philosopher and worker another. It means that if a person seeks the Knowledge of Brahman he can attain It by following the path of bhakti, too. God, who loves His devotee, can give him the Knowledge of Brahman if He so desires.
"But the bhakta wants to realize the Personal God endowed with form and talk to Him.
He seldom seeks the Knowledge of Brahman. But God, who does everything at His pleasure, can make His devotee the heir to His infinite glories if it pleases Him. He gives His devotee both the Love of God and the Knowledge of Brahman. If one is able somehow to reach Calcutta, one can see the Maidan and the museum and other places too. The thing is how to reach Calcutta.
"By realizing the Divine Mother of the Universe, you will get Knowledge as well as Devotion. You will get both. In bhava samdhi you will see the form of God, and in nirvikalpa samdhi you will realize Brahman, the Absolute Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. In nirvikalpa samdhi ego, name, and form do not exist.
Devotee's prayer to God
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1.25 - ADVICE TO PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood; From One who knows it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava.
A man has come to me from a country where there is no night, And now I cannot distinguish day from night any longer; Rituals and devotions have all grown profitless for me.
--
The samdhi attained through the path of bhakti is called 'chetana samdhi'. In this samdhi there remains the conciousness of 'I' the 'I' of the servant-and-Master relationship, of the lover-and-Beloved relationship, of the enjoyer-and-Food relationship.
God is the Master; the devotee is the servant. God is the beloved; the devotee is the lover. God is the Food, and the devotee is the enjoyer. 'I don't want to be sugar. I want to eat it.' "
--
MASTER: "Though they were jnanis, yet they kept the 'I' of the bhakta. Haven't you read the bhagavata?"
PUNDIT: "I have read only part of it, not the whole."
--
"Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge' in order to teach people. God keeps in many people the 'ego of a Jnni' or the 'ego of a bhakta' even after they have attained Brahmajnana. Hanuman, after realizing God in both His Personal and His Impersonal aspect, cherished toward God the attitude of a servant, a devotee. He said to Rma: 'O
Rma, sometimes I think that You are the whole and I am a part of You. Sometimes I think that You are the Master and I am Your servant. And sometimes, Rma, when I contemplate the Absolute, I see that I am You and You are I.'
--
"Both bhaktiyoga and jnanayoga are paths by which you can realize God. Whatever path you may follow, you will certainly realize Him. The path of bhakti is an easy one. The path of knowledge and discrimination is very difficult. Why should one reason so much to know which path is the best? I talked about this with Vijay for many days. Once I told him about a man who used to pray, 'O God, reveal to me who and what You are.'
"The path of knowledge and discrimination is difficult indeed. Parvati, the Divine Mother, revealed Her various forms to Her father and said, 'Father, if you want Brahmajnana, then live in the company of holy men.'
--
"Those who reason and speculate following the process of 'Neti, neti' do not accept the Incarnation of God. Hazra says well that Divine Incarnation is only for the bhakta, and not for the Jnni, because the Jnni is quite contented with his ideal, 'I am He'."
Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees remained silent awhile. The pundit resumed the conversation.
--
"Both negation and affirmation are ways to realize one and the same goal. Infinite are the opinions and infinite are the ways. But you must remember one thing. The injunction is that the path of devotion described by Nrada is best suited to the Kaliyuga. According to this path, first comes bhakti; then bhava, when bhakti is mature. Higher than bhava are maha bhava and prema. An ordinary mortal does not attain maha bhava and prema.
He who has achieved these has realized the goal, that is to say, has attained God."
--
MASTER (to Balarm's father and the others): "The bhaktamala is one of the Vaishnava books. It is a fine book. It describes the lives of the various Vaishnava devotees. But it is one-sided. At one place the author found peace of mind only after compelling bhagavati, the Divine Mother, to take Her initiation according to the Vaishnava discipline.
"Once I spoke highly of Vaishnavcharan to Mathur and persuaded him to invite Vaishnavcharan to his house. Mathur welcomed him with great courtesy. He fed his guest from silver plates. Then do you know what happened? Vaishnav said in front of Mathur, 'You will achieve nothing whatsoever in spiritual life unless you accept Krishna as your Ideal.' Mathur was a follower of the Sakta cult and a worshipper of the Divine Mother. At once his face became crimson. I nudged Vaishnavcharan.
"I understand that the bhagavata also contains some statements like that. I hear that it is said there that trying to cross the ocean of the world without accepting Krishna as the Ideal Deity is like trying to cross a great sea by holding the tail of a dog. Each sect magnifies its own view.
"The Saktas, too, try to belittle the Vaishnavas. The Vaishnavas say that Krishna alone is the Helmsman to take one across the ocean of the world. The Saktas retort: 'Oh, yes!
--
Three kinds of bhakti
PUNDIT: "By what kind of bhakti does one realize God?"
MASTER: "Three kinds of bhakti are found, according to the nature of the man: sattvic bhakti, rajasic bhakti, and tamasic bhakti.
"Sattvic bhakti is known to God alone. It makes no outward display. A man with such devotion loves privacy. Perhaps he meditates inside the mosquito net, where nobody sees him. When this kind of devotion is awakened, one hasn't long to wait for the vision of God. The appearance of the dawn in the east shows that the sun will rise before long.
"A man with rajasic bhakti feels like making a display of his devotion before others. He worships the Deity with 'sixteen ingredients', enters the temple wearing a silk cloth, and puts around his neck a string of rudrksha beads interspersed here and there with beads of gold and ruby.
"A man with tamasic bhakti shows the courage and boisterousness of a highway robber.
A highway robber goes on his expedition openly, shouting, 'Kill! Plunder!' He isn't afraid even of eight police inspectors. The devotee with tamasic bhakti also shouts like a madman:'Hara! Hara! Vyom! Vyom! Victory to Kli!' He has great strength of mind and burning faith.
"A Sakta has such faith. He says: 'What? I have uttered once the name of Kli and of Durga! I have uttered once the name of Rma! Can there be any sin in me?'
--
MASTER (to Shashadhar): "This is called bhajanananda, the bliss of devotees in the worship of God. Worldly people keep themselves engrossed in the joy of sensuous objects, of 'woman and gold'. Through worship devotees receive the grace of God, and then His vision. Then they enjoy Brahmananda, the Bliss of Brahman."
Shashadhar and the devotees listened to these words with rapt attention.
--
MASTER: "To love God is the essence of the whole thing. bhakti alone is the essence.
Nrada said to Rma, 'May I always have pure love for Your Lotus Feet; and may I not be deluded by Your world-bewitching my!' Rma said to him, 'Ask for some other boon.' 'No,' said Nrada, 'I don't want anything else. May I have love for Your Lotus Feet. This is my only prayer.' "
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1.26 - FESTIVAL AT ADHARS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in his room in the temple garden at Dakshineswar after his midday meal. A party of Bauls from Shibpur, several devotees from bhawanipur, Balarm, and M. were in the room. Rkhl, Ltu, and Harish were then living with the Master. They too were present.
The Master began the conversation by addressing the Baul musicians from Shibpur.
--
"It is not given to everybody to feel prema, ecstatic love of God. Chaitanya experienced it. An ordinary man can at the most experience bhava. Only the Isvarakotis, such as Divine Incarnations, experience prema. When prema is awakened the devotee not only feels the world to be unreal, but forgets even the body, which everyone loves so intensely.
"In a Persian book it is said that inside the skin is the flesh, inside the flesh the bone, inside the bone the marrow, and so on, but that prema is the innermost of all. One becomes soft and tender through prema. On account of this prema, Krishna became tri bhanga.
--
"The mature stage of bhakti is bhava. When one attains it one remains speechless, thinking of Satchidananda. The feeling of an ordinary man can go only that far. When bhava ripens it becomes maha bhava. Prema is the last. You know the difference between a green mango and a ripe one. Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal.
"Once Rma was pleased with the prayer of Nrada and told him to ask for a boon.
--
"How can a devotee attain such love? First, the company of holy men. That awakens raddh, faith in God. Then comes nishtha, single-minded devotion to the Ideal. In that stage the devotee does not like to hear anything but talk about God. He performs only those acts that please God. After nishtha comes bhakti, devotion to God; then comes bhava. Next maha bhava, then prema, and last of all the attainment of God Himself.
Only for Isvarakotis, such as the Incarnations, is it possible to have maha bhava or prema.
--
MASTER: "And what about bhavanath? Would he come here so frequently if he didn't have good tendencies? What about Harish and Ltu? They always meditate. Why is that?"
HAZRA: "That's right. Why should they devote all their time to meditation? It is quite a different thing for them to stay here to attend to your personal needs."
--
About three o'clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was seated in Adhar's parlour on the second floor. Narendra, the Mukherji brothers, bhavanath, M., Hazra, and other devotees were with the Master.
Arrangements were being made for Narendra to sing: While he was tuning the Tnpura, one of the strings snapped, and the Master exclaimed, "Oh! What have you done?"
--
Narendra! bhavanath! Please come tomorrow." Then with several devotees he set out for Dakshineswar.
The other devotees returned home in the moonlit night, cherishing in their hearts the Master's ecstatic music and dancing.
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1.27 - AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Arrangements had been made with the musician Shyamdas to entertain the Master and the devotees with his kirtan. Baburam, M., Manomohan, bhavanath, Kishori, Chunilal, Haripada, the Mukherji brothers, Ram, Surendra, Trak, Niranjan, and others arrived at the temple garden. Ltu, Harish, and Hazra were staying with the Master.
When M. saluted Sri Ramakrishna, the Master asked: "Where is Narendra? Isn't he coming?" M. told him that Narendra could not come.
--
MASTER: "Stop, please! These ideas are outlandish and bizarre. Read something that will awaken bhakti."
The brahmin read:
--
MASTER (to the devotees): "The ebb-tide and flood-tide are indeed amazing. But notice one thing. Near the sea you see ebb-tide and flood-tide in a river, but far away from the sea the river flows in one direction only. What does this mean? Try to apply its significance to your spiritual life. Those who live very near God feel within them the currents of bhakti, bhava, and the like. In the case of a few the Isvarakotis, for instanceone sees even maha bhava and prema.
(To M.) "What is the explanation of the ebb-tide and flood-tide?"
--
"The aim of prayer, of spiritual discipline, of chanting the name and glories of God, is to realize just that. For that alone a devotee loves God. These youngsters are on a lower level; they haven't yet reached a high spiritual state. They are following the path of bhakti. Please don't tell them such things as 'I am He'."
Like the mother bird brooding over her chicks, Sri Ramakrishna was alert to protect his devotees.
--
Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room with Narendra, bhavanath, the Mukherji brothers, and other devotees. Rkhl was staying with Balarm at Vrindvan and was laid up with an attack of fever. Narendra was preparing himself for his coming law examination.
About eleven o'clock Jnan Babu arrived. He was a government official and had received four university degrees.
--
The Master finished his midday meal and rested a few minutes. bhavanath, M., the Mukherji brothers, Hazra, and several other devotees sat down under the bakul-tree and began to converse. The Master stopped there awhile on his way to the pine-grove.
HAZRA (to the younger Gopal): "Please prepare a smoke for him [meaning the Master]."
--
The devotees from Kannagar had never seen the Master in samdhi. Seeing him silent, they were about to leave the room. bhavanath said to them: "Why are you going away?
This is his samdhi." The devotees resumed their places.
--
The Master said, "Mother, why do You make me argue?" He sang again: Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood; From One who knows it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava...
The Master said, "I am quite conscious." But he was still groggy with divine fervour. He sang once more:
--
Sri Ramakrishna became conscious of the outer world and began to converse with Narendra, bhavanath, and the other devotees.
They were talking about the sadhaka.
--
Therefore I salute both. It is written in the Chandi: 'The Divine Mother is the good fortune of the blessed and the ill fortune of the unlucky.' (To bhavanath) Is that mentioned in the Vishnu Purana?"
bhaVANATH (smiling): "I don't know, sir. The devotees from Konnagar did not understand your samdhi and were about to leave the room."
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1.2 - Katha Upanishads, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
bharadwaja told it, the bharadwaja to Angiras, both the
higher and the lower knowledge.
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1.300 - 1.400 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
A brahmachari youth who has graduated in science has been waiting here for Grace for the last four or five months in order that some job might drop on him like a ripe apple from the tree. He has been making no other efforts to secure a job. His brother yesterday came here to take him away to his parents. But the youth declined to go. An appeal was made to Sri bhagavan.
Sri bhagavan said: "I do not tell anyone to come nor ask him to go.
Everyone pleases himself here. He says he finds peace in the hall and he also wants a job. Evidently the job must be found in the hall itself so that his peace may not be disturbed. Peace is not in the hall. It is in the repose of the Self. It can be gained anywhere."
Some days later the youth threw away his sacred thread and appeared before Sri bhagavan with his limbs shaking, which the young man later described as his Bliss (ananda). Sri bhagavan told him not to make a habit of sitting in front of Him in the hall and ordered him out. Furthermore He continued: Even a fledgling is protected by the parent birds only till such time it grows its wings. It is not protected for ever. Similarly with devotees. I have shown the way. You must now be able to follow it up and find peace wherever you are.
273
--
The young man thinks that Sri bhagavan gave him upadesa in the following words: "The self (i.e. ego) must be subdued by oneself.
The man however has refused the offer of a job to him in one of the local schools and thinks that he has been given a mighty job by the
Hill or by Sri bhagavan. "What that job is the world will know later", he says. He had further anticipated all this day's occurrences some months ago and had foretold them to his mother and to his friends.
He is further happy at the happenings.
Sri bhagavan however compared him to another man who is in no way of the right type. And yet the boy thinks that he is bhagavan in embryo. Later he turned mad and died.
Talk 301.
A gentleman enthusiastically recounted several of his experiences on following Sri bhagavan's instructions and incidentally mentioned that he and Sri bhagavan were born on the same day of the week and bore the same name ....
Sri bhagavan completed it, adding "The same Self is in both."
Talk 302.
A young man from Trichy asked Sri bhagavan on the mention in
Upadesa Manjari of atyanta vairagyam (total dispassion) as the qualification of a ripe disciple. He continued: "What is vairagya?
--
A Swiss lady described a photism she had to Sri bhagavan. While she was sitting with her eyes wide open, she saw Sri bhagavan's face becoming cherub-like and draped in glorious flowers. She was drawn in love towards that child-like face.
M.: The vision is in your mind. Your love is the cause. Paul Brunton saw me as a giant figure; you saw me like a child. Both are visions.
--
Sri bhagavan continued: Probably you had been thinking of a child and that appeared in the vision ......
D.: Yes, only of Siva - of His child-like face ....
--
After a few minutes bhagavan continued: You will shortly go to sleep. When you wake up in the morning you will say "I slept well and happily". What happened in sleep is your real nature. That continues now too; otherwise it will not be your real nature. Get the state of sleep even now; it is Siva.
Have we got a form? Find that out before you think of Siva's form.
--
The visitors were talking among themselves and one of them said: "We, though familiar with our traditional teachings, are unable to follow these teachings (meaning Sri bhagavan's). How can the foreigners unfamiliar with our ways follow Sri bhagavan's teachings so easily?"
He seemed to sympathise with their attempts to understand us in spite of their handicaps, and also to pity them for want of proper equipment.
Sri bhagavan remarked finally: Visions are better than no visions.
They get interested in that way. They do not take to foreign ideas; when once they do it, they stick on. So much for their merits.
Sri bhagavan later referred to Sivaprakasam Pillai's vision. "Visions are not external. They appear only internally. If external they must assert themselves without there being a seer. In that case what is the warranty for their existence? The seer only."
Talk 306.
--
Again reverting to Tiruvachagam, Sri bhagavan said: All the four foremost saints have given out their experiences in the very first stanza. (1) Undifferentiated worship. (2) Never-failing remembrance. (3) Unrisen thought. (4) The ego is not, the Self is.
All mean the same.
--
Mr. Shamanna from Mysore asked Sri bhagavan: Kindly explain
Aham Sphurana (the light of 'I-I').
--
Sphurana. This is natural to the Jnani and is itself called jnana by jnanis, or bhakti by bhaktas. Though ever present, including
278
--
Sri bhagavan said: The Non-self is untouchable. The social untouchability is man-made, whereas the other untouchability is natural and divine.
D.: Should the untouchables be allowed into our temples?
--
At 5-30 p.m. the Swiss lady complains to Sri bhagavan that she gets a headache if meditation be prolonged for some time.
281
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Mr. Greenlees: bhagavan said yesterday that, while one is engaged in search for "God within", outer work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is explained that while he sought Krishna (the
Self) during his lectures to students, he forgot where his body was and went on talking of Krishna. This rouses doubt whether work can safely be left to itself. Should one keep part-attention on the physical work?
--
In yesterday's answers, Sri bhagavan said that the Self is pure consciousness in deep slumber, and He also indicated the Self of the transition from sleep to the waking state as the ideal for realisation.
He was requested to explain the same.
Sri bhagavan graciously answered: The Self is pure consciousness in sleep; it evolves as aham ('I') without the idam ('this') in the transition stage; and manifests as aham ('I') and idam ('this') in the waking state.
The individual's experience is by means of aham ('I') only. So he must aim at realisation in the way indicated (i.e., by means of the transitional 'I').
--
One of the attendants asked: Sri bhagavan has said: 'Reality and myth are both the same'. How is it so?
M.: The tantriks and others of the kind condemn Sri Sankara's philosophy as maya vada without understanding him aright. What does he say?
--
M.: Because dwiteeyadvai bhayam bhavati - fear is always of a second one. Of what are you afraid?
D.: By reason of the perception of the body, the senses, the world,
--
Ekamevadwiteeyam = Only one without a second, representing Karma, Yoga, bhakti and Jnana convey the same meaning.
They are only the single Truth presented in different aspects.
--
In the course of an informal conversation Sri bhagavan pointed out that Self-Realisation is possible only for the fit. The vasanas must be eliminated before jnana dawns. One must be like Janaka for jnana to dawn. One must be ready to sacrifice everything for the Truth.
Complete renunciation is the index of fitness.
--
While explaining stanza 6 in Arunachala Ashtaka, Sri bhagavan observed as follows:
The final word in the previous stanza asks, "Is there one?" The initial words in the present stanza answer, "Yes, there is the One....." It proceeds, "Though it is the only One, yet by its wonderful power it gets reflected on the tiny dot 'I' (the ego) otherwise known as ignorance or the aggregate of latent tendencies; this reflected light is relative knowledge. This, according to one's prarabdha (past karma now fructifying), manifests the inner latent tendencies as the outer gross world and withdraws the gross external world as the subtle internal tendencies; such power is called mind in the subtle plane and brain in the physical plane. This mind or brain acts as the magnifier to that
--
(1) While in Skandasramam, Sri bhagavan saw a white toad, small and long, at a distance of about 10 feet from Him. Sri bhagavan stared at it and it stared at Him. Suddenly, it took a long jump and lodged itself precisely on one of the eyes of Sri bhagavan who quickly closed it and so it was not injured.
(2) There were two peacocks which used to strut with their feathers spread out like a spangled fan. A cobra too used to take part in the pastime and raised its hood and moved about in their midst.
(3) Sri bhagavan says that the peacock, as soon as it sights a green lizard, goes straight to it and meekly places its neck down before the lizard which bites it off and kills the peacock.
(4) Rangaswami Iyengar was once out on the hill. A leopard was nearby. He threw a stone. It turned towards him. He hurried away for his life. Sri bhagavan met him on the way and asked what the matter was. Iyengar simply said 'leopard' as he was running. Sri bhagavan went where the beast was and it moved away soon after. All this happened at the time of the plague. Leopards used to roam freely by the side of the temple, sometimes in twos and threes.
(5) Sri bhagavan said, "A frog is often compared to a yogi. It remains quiet for a long time, the only sign of life being the rhythmic movement of the under-skin below the neck."
"Again frogs can remain for extraordinary long periods with their animation suspended. They are said to swallow their tongues.
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi island. Sri bhagavan emphasised the point that the mental approach accomplishes the purpose earlier than physical action.
(7) Sri bhagavan related the following funny anecdote; Ezhuthachan, a great Malayali saint and author, had a few fish concealed in him when he entered the temple. Some enemy reported it to the worshippers in the temple. The man was searched and taken to the king. The king asked him "Why did you take the fish into the temple"? He replied: "It is not my fault. I had it concealed in my clothes. The others exposed the fish in the temple. The fault lies in exposure. Excreta within the body are not considered filthy; but when excreted, they are considered filthy. So also with this."
12th January, 1937
--
M.: Think of bhagavan. How will the affairs of the world distract
Him? You and they are in Him.
--
In answer to a question by a long resident attendant Sri bhagavan said: "Everybody complains of the restlessness of the mind. Let the mind be found and then they will know. True, when a man sits down to meditate thoughts rush up by dozens. The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The attempt to push through the barrage of thoughts is unsuccessful. If one can by any means abide in the Self it is good.
For those who are unable to do so, chanting or meditation (Japa or dhyana) is prescribed. It is like giving a piece of chain to an elephant
--
The audience in the hall were very attentively listening. One of them, a sincere devotee of Sri bhagavan, was so impressed by it that he soon lost himself. He later described his experience as follows:
"I was long wondering where the 'current' starts, within the body or elsewhere. Suddenly, my body grew tenuous until it disappeared. The enquiry 'Who am I?' went on very clearly and forcibly. The sound of 'I-I-I' alone persisted. There was one vast expanse and nothing more. There was a hazy perception of the occurrences in the hall. I knew that people stood up to salute at the end of the Vedic chant. I
--
Sri bhagavan listened to his words and was silent for some minutes.
A few observations fell from his lips:
--
D.: Sri bhagavan has said in one of the works that the japa must be traced to its source. Is it not the mind that is meant?
M.: All these are only the workings of the mind. Japa helps to fix the mind to a single thought. All other thoughts are first subordinated until they disappear. When it becomes mental it is called dhyana.
--
In the morning Sri bhagavan read out a short passage from St. Estella in the Tamil Ramakrishna Vijayam. Its purport is: "Your enemies are lust, passion, etc. If you feel injured turn within and find out the cause of the injury. It is not external to you. The external causes are mere superimpositions. If you cannot injure yourself, will the all-merciful
God injure you in any manner?"
Sri bhagavan further said that St. Estella was a good saint, whose teachings were quite sound.
Talk 330.
Sri bhagavan, being asthmatic, is hoarse in throat. Oranges were brought as offerings. Pieces were distributed as usual. Sri bhagavan was clearing His throat and was obliged to spit out the orange in His mouth. He said that He had to spit it out. A gentleman said: "Probably, it does not suit Sri bhagavan's health."
M.: Would you say so if you had brought the fruits, instead of the other person?
--
League, asked Sri bhagavan about the spread of Peace in the world.
Sri bhagavan replied that if one gains the Peace of the Self it will spread itself without any effort on the part of the individual. When one is not oneself peaceful, how can that one spread peace in the world?
The lady asked if it was not true that the East has a scientific approach to the Realisation of the Self.
--
The lady was then told of the pamphlet, Who am I? She agreed to read it before asking further questions of Sri bhagavan.
Talk 332.
--
Sri bhagavan said that he felt no sensation in His legs though they were massaged. "If they serve the purpose of walking what does it matter if sensation is lost?" he asked. Then in the course of conversation he related that a ray of light has been found which, when projected, does not reveal the operator but enables him to witness the scene. So it is with siddhas. They are only pure light and can see others, whereas, they cannot be seen by others. For example Prabhulinga, while touring in the North, came across Goraknath. The latter displayed his yogic
312
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Sri bhagavan spoke very appreciatively of Nayana, i.e., Kavyakantha
Ganapathi Muni, for about an hour, how he wrote Uma Sahasram and Hara Sahasram, how he taught his students, how he engaged in dispute with bhattasri Narayana Sastri, how meek and humble he was though so learned and capable, etc.
Sri bhagavan related how Nakkirar, a Sanga Pulavar (Poet), faced the wrath of Siva on questioning some composition of Siva in Tamil, how he was taken captive by a spirit and afterwards released.
Nakkirar was doing tapas on the bank of a tirtha. A leaf fell down from a tree; half the leaf touched the water and the other half was on the ground. Suddenly the water-half became a fish and the land-half became a bird. Each of them was united to the other by the leaf and struggled to go into its own element. Nakkirar was watching it in wonder and suddenly a spirit came down from above and carried him away to a cave where were already 999 captives all of whom were tapo bhrashta (those who had fallen away from their austerities).
--
Srimad bhagavad Gita asked some questions:
D.: How to realise the Self?
--
The questioner retired. Later, Sri bhagavan said: Divine sight means
Self-luminosity. The world divya shows it. The full word means the Self. Who is to bestow a divine eye? And who is to see? Again, people read in the books, "hearing, reflection and one-pointedness are necessary". They think that they must pass through savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi before attaining Realisation.
--
M.: The sastras say: "By karma, bhakti and so on". My attendant asked the same question once before. He was told, "By karma dedicated to God". It is not enough that one thinks of God while doing the karma, but one must continually and unceasingly think of Him. Then alone will the mind become pure.
The attendant applies it to himself and says, "It is not enough that I serve
Sri bhagavan physically. But I must unceasingly remember Him".
To another person, who asked the same question, bhagavan said:
Quest of the Self, meaning, 'I am-the-body' idea must vanish. (Atma vichara = disappearance of dehatma buddhi).
--
Sri bhagavan referred the lady to a few stanzas in Truth Revealed and to Thayumanavar. She retired.
Later Sri bhagavan said the whole Vedanta is contained in the two
Biblical statements:
--
Mr. K. S. N. Iyer, a Railway Officer, said to Sri bhagavan that the compiler of Cosmic Consciousness considers realisation to be possible only within certain limits of age in an individual's life.
319
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With regard to Siva Visishtadvaita, (i.e., Saiva Siddhanta), Sri bhagavan said: Garudoham bhavana 'I am Garuda' - conception does not make a garuda of a man. All the same the poisonous effects of snake-bite are cured. Similarly with Sivoham bhavana (I-am-Siva) conception also.
One is not transformed into Siva, but the ruinous effects of the ego are put an end to. Or the person retains his individuality but remains pure, i.e., fit for constituting a part of the body of Siva. Becoming so he can enjoy the Supreme Bliss. That is liberation - say the Saiva Siddhantis.
--
Scripture Atmanastu kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati - (All are dear because of the love of the Self) becomes clear.
A question arises, why there should be suicides in that case.
--
Mrs Jennings: Sri bhagavan says that the state of Realisation is freedom from the tyranny of thoughts. Have not the thoughts got a place in the scheme of things - maybe on a lower plane?
M.: The thoughts arise from the 'I-thought' which in its turn arises from the Self. Therefore the Self manifests as 'I' and other thoughts.
--
The American lady again: Does complete surrender mean that all noise and disturbance in our environment, even during meditation, must be accepted? Or should we seek a cave in a mountain for solitude? Did not bhagavan do this?
M.: There is no going or returning. The Self is said to be unaffected by the elements, infinite, eternal. It cannot move. There is no place to move in for the Self.
--
If bhagavan is the body you may ask that body. But understand him whom you address as bhagavan. He is not the body. He is the Self.
Then she referred to an article in Harijan where it is said that everything is God and nothing belongs to the individual, and so on.
--
The lady then thanked Sri bhagavan and retired.
Talk 342.
At 11 p.m. in the night a group of Andhras came from Guntur, consisting of a middle-aged woman with a sad but firm look, her mother and two men. They requested audience with Sri bhagavan.
The woman said to Sri bhagavan:
"When my son was in the womb my husb and died. The son was born posthumous. He grew up all right for five years. Then he was attacked by infantile paralysis. When nine he was bedridden. Nevertheless he was bright and cheerful. For two years he was in that condition and now they say that he is dead. I know that he is only sleeping and will awake soon. When they said that he had collapsed I was shocked. I saw in a vision a sadhu who appeared to pass his hands over the child's body and the child awoke refreshed. I believe that sadhu is yourself. Please come and touch the boy so that he may get up," she prayed.
Sri bhagavan asked what the doctor said.
She replied, "They say that he is dead. But what do they know? I have brought the boy all the way from Guntur to this place".
--
When asked, Sri bhagavan said: It is said of some saints that they revived the dead. They, too, did not revive all the dead. If that could be done there will be no world, no death, no cemetery, etc.
One man asked: The mother's faith was very remarkable. How could she have had such a hopeful vision and still be disappointed?
--
Sri bhagavan interrupted: Do not look for sastras. What is jivanmukti? What is ananda? Liberation itself is in doubt. What are all these words? Can they be independent of the Self.
D.: Only we have no experience of all this.
--
Sri bhagavan continued, after interval: Destroy the power of mind by seeking it. When the mind is examined its activities cease automatically.
Looking for the source of mind is another method. The source may be said to be God or Self or consciousness.
--
Brahman), and Brahmaivaham (Brahman alone am I) is termed nididhyasana or atmanusandhana, i.e., constancy in the Self. This is otherwise called bhakti, Yoga and Dhyana.
Atmanusandhana has been likened to churning the curd to draw forth butter, the mind being compared to the churning rod, the heart to the curd and the practice of constancy in the Self to the process of churning. Just as by churning the curd butter is extracted and by friction fire is kindled, even so, by unswerving vigilant constancy in the Self, ceaseless like the unbroken filamentary flow of oil, is generated the natural or changeless trance or nirvikalpa samadhi, which readily and spontaneously yields that direct, immediate, unobstructed and universal perception of Brahman, which is at once Knowledge and Experience and which transcends time and space.
--
Sri bhagavan observed: How does one know the world to be transitory?
Unless something permanent is held, the transitory nature of the world cannot be understood. Because the man is already the Self, and the Self is the Eternal Reality, his attention is drawn to it; and he is instructed to rivet his attention on the Eternal Reality, the Self.
--
Later Sri bhagavan continued: It is said "I AM that I AM". That means a person must abide as the 'I'. He is always the 'I' alone.
He is nothing else. Yet he asks "Who am I?" A victim of illusion would ask "Who am I?" and not a man fully aware of himself.
--
Sri bhagavan was recounting some of the incidents of His stay in
Tiruvannamalai:
--
The news spread, that Jada Padmana bhaswami, who was living on the Hill, had arranged with Palaniswami to take Sri bhagavan to the hill near his cottage. Palaniswami, without informing Sri bhagavan, managed to take Him there. A great reception awaited Him. A seat was arranged for Him, milk and fruits were offered and J. P. waited on Him with great kindness.
3. J.P., though represented in the book Self-Realisation as having sought to injure Sri bhagavan, was really kind to Him and his pranks were misunderstood to be acts of malice. His only weakness was that he wanted to make capital out of Sri bhagavan for raising funds; which, of course, the Maharshi did not like. There was nothing wrong with J.P.
4. Madhavaswami, the attendant, asked if Sri bhagavan remained without food for months in the underground cellar in the temple.
M.: Um! - Um! - food was forthcoming - Milk, fruits - but whoever thought of food.
5. While staying in the mango-tree cave Sri bhagavan used to string garlands for the images in the temple, with lotuses, yellow flowers
(sarakonnai) and green leaves.
6. After the completion of the Kalyanamantapam Sri bhagavan had stayed there one night in disguise.
7. When He was sitting under a tree in the temple compound He was covered with dirt, for He never used to bathe. In the cold nights of
--
8. When living on the Hill Sri bhagavan used to help in the pooja of
J. P., ringing the bell, washing the vessels, etc., all along remaining silent. He also used to read medical works, e.g., Ashtanga Hridayam in Malayalam and point out the treatment contained in the book for the patients who sought the other sadhu's help. That sadhu did not himself know how to read these works.
--
It is 8-20 p.m. Sri bhagavan has returned after supper and stretched
Himself on the sofa. The light is dim; there are three men sitting on the floor; one is busy copying something from a journal; another is wrapt in meditation; and the third is looking around, having nothing to do. The hall is silent but for occasional clearing of the throat by Sri bhagavan.
Madhavaswami, the attendant devotee, slips in noiselessly with a sheaf of betels in hand. He moves to the table. Sri bhagavan who is reclining on the sofa, sees him and calls out, yet kindly; "Sh, Sh; what are you doing?"
The attendant softly murmurs, "Nothing", leaves the betel there and fumbles hesitatingly.
--
Sri bhagavan: "Kasturi Pill - one after another, every day. The bottle will be empty - and more is ordered. I don't want it."
A devotee skilfully blames the olla podrida () of the day-meal for the indifferent health of Sri bhagavan.
M.: "No - no - It was well made. It was good." silence, but for expectoration and eructation. After a few minutes, the attendant slips out and returns with a bottle in hand, goes near Sri bhagavan and stretches out a pill saying: "Cummin seed-pill". Sri bhagavan softly murmurs, "It contains
338
--
Sri bhagavan continues: "Who is to munch it?"
Rangaswamy Iyengar: "It need not be munched. It may be kept in the mouth and sucked." The attendant hastily agrees. "Yes - yes it is only to be sucked."
--
At about 7-30 a.m. Sri bhagavan was climbing up the hill after breakfast. Padananda went and prostrated, stood up and said, "All right, I have had darsan ... I shall return."
Sri bhagavan smilingly, "Whose darsan? Why don't you say that you gave darsan to me?"
At about 9 a.m. a devotee from Poona (Mr. Parkhi) saluted Sri
bhagavan and read out his ashtaka praying to Sri bhagavan for
Grace. The piece finishes with a prayer for quick liberation (jhatiti mukti) and the devotee emphasised it.
--
Brunton that his wife has since lost that peace of mind which she had gained by her visits to Sri bhagavan; so he desires that Sri bhagavan may be pleased to restore the same peace.
When requested, Sri bhagavan said, "It is due to weakness of mind that peace once gained is later lost."
Talk 361.
--
During the time Sri bhagavan was staying in Virupaksha Cave, Sri bhagavan and Mudaliar Swami were walking together behind the Skandasramam site.
There was a huge rock about 15 feet high; it was a cleft, a girl (a shepherdess) was standing there crying. Sri bhagavan asked the reason of her sorrow.
She said, "A sheep of mine has slipped into this cleft; so I am crying." Sri
--
There were many new visitors this day. Two of them were speaking of Ganapati Muni in Sri bhagavan's presence. Sri bhagavan put in a few words in their talk:
(1) Some say that jnana and upasana are the two wings with which to fly to mukti. What is jnana? What is upasana? Jnana is ever present. That is the ultimate goal also. When an effort is made the effort is called upasana; when it is effortless it is jnana, which is the same as mukti.
--
Sri bhagavan said: Who sees the externalities? Or do they say that they exist? If so let the world say that it exists.
Again, if the world is a projection from the interior it must be recognised that it is projected simultaneously with the 'I-thought'.
--
Sri bhagavan added that Ganapati Muni used to say that it was easy to move forward but impossible to move backward.
Then Sri bhagavan remarked: However far one goes there he is.
Where is moving backward? The same truth is contained in the mantra in Isa-Upanishad.
--
(inspired poet), Sri bhagavan said; It is said that while he was making tapasya Siva appeared and gave him milk or honey to drink, after which he became asu kavi.
341
--
As Sri bhagavan was continuing in the same strain, a visitor asked how to overcome the identity of the Self with the body.
M.: What about sleep?
--
A young girl of 9 or 10, whose mother is a Research Scholar in Sanskrit in the University of Madras, accompanied by Mr. Maurice Frydman met Sri bhagavan in Palakothu at about 12 noon. Sri bhagavan, as usual with Him, kindly smiled on her. She asked Sri bhagavan: "Why is there misery on earth?"
M.: Due to Karma.
--
Sri bhagavan almost laughed and was very pleased with her. Later he was coaxing her to read something on returning to the hall. Since then He is watching her.
22nd February, 1937
--
They are quiet and simple. Both of them tearfully took leave and the gentleman even sobbed out a prayer for Sri bhagavan's Grace. Sri
bhagavan gazed at them, with his lips parted showing the row of white teeth. His eyes also had a tear in them.
--
Sri bhagavan was in the cattle-shed. People were working and he watched their work for a short time. Then someone came and said that a large number of visitors were waiting in the hall. Sri
bhagavan in His calm way said: "Yes - yes, you do your work. Let
--
Sri bhagavan. One of them kneeled and asked: I am performing hathayoga, namely basti, dhauti, neti, etc. I find a blood vessel hardened in the ankle. Is it a result of Yoga?
M.: The blood-vessel would have hardened under any circumstances. It does not trouble you as much now as it would otherwise. Hathayoga is a cleaning process. It also helps peace of mind, after leading you to pranayama.
--
A little later Sri bhagavan continued:
Dhyana means fight. As soon as you begin meditation other thoughts will crowd together, gather force and try to sink the single thought to which you try to hold. The good thought must gradually gain strength by repeated practice. After it has grown strong the other thoughts will be put to flight.
--
Later Sri bhagavan continued:
When dhyana is well established it cannot be given up. It will go on automatically even when you are engaged in work, play or enjoyment. It will persist in sleep too.
--
In bhakti marga (path of devotion) these are the precursors to samadhi.
D.: Are they not so in the path of jnana?
--
Highness saluted Sri bhagavan placing his head on Sri bhagavan's feet and said:
I have read Sri bhagavan's life and long had a desire to meet Him, but my circumstances are such that intentions of this kind cannot easily be carried into effect. Nor can I stay here as other disciples can, considering all my limitations. While I remain here for about 15 minutes, I shall now pray only for Thy Grace.
(On departure H. H. again saluted Sri bhagavan as before and left after presenting two fine shawls and some money to the office).
353
--
Their Highnesses The Maharajah and the Maharani of Travancore who arrived at Tiruvannamalai by the 8 a.m., train visited the Asramam at 4-15 p.m. The public were excluded from the hall where bhagavan sat. Even devotees who were daily visiting the hall were by a sad mistake excluded from the interview. The Royal party was introduced to Sri bhagavan by a retired
District Magistrate. Two aides-de-camp, the Private Secretary to H. H. The
--
Her Highness put some questions expressing her doubts and they were all explained by Sri bhagavan. H. H. The Maharajah also took part in the discussion. The whole conversation was in Tamil and Malayalam.
During the visit of the Royal Family of Travancore, Her Highness appeared very cultured, vivacious and conversant with Malayalam,
--
In a conversation with an Andhra visitor, Sri bhagavan quoted:
Asamsayam mahabaho mano durnigraham chalam
--
To explain vairagya Sri bhagavan again quoted:
Sankalpapra bhavan kamams tyaktva sarvan aseshatah
--
One Tirumalpad of Nilambur, a Malayali gentleman, asked Sri bhagavan for an explanation of Atma Vidya. (Knowledge of the Self.)
M.: Sri bhagavan explained this short piece of 5 stanzas as follows:
Chidambaram is the famous place of pilgrimage associated with Nandanar who sang that Atma Vidya is most difficult of attainment. Muruganar (a long-standing devotee of Sri bhagavan) began however that Atma Vidya is the easiest of attainments. Ayye atisula bham is the burden of the song.
In explanation of this extraordinary statement, he argued that Atma being the Self is eternally obvious even to the least of men. The original statement and the subsequent reasoning are incompatible because there need be no attainment if the Self is the substratum of all selves and so obvious too. Naturally he could not pursue the theme further and laid the first four lines composed by him before
Sri bhagavan for completion.
Sri bhagavan admitted the truth of the disciple's statement and pointed out why the Self, though obvious, is yet hidden. It is the wrong identity of the Self with the body, etc.
D.: How did the wrong identity arise?
--
(It was 5 p.m. Sri bhagavan left the hall and the gentleman left for the station).
360
--
Mr. Bose, the Bengali Engineer, asked the meaning of the last stanza of Atma Vidya (Knowledge of the Self). Sri bhagavan explained on the following lines:
There is the world perceived, the perception is only apparent; it requires location for existence and light. Such existence and light are simultaneous with the rise of mind. So the physical existence and illumination are part of mental existence and illumination. The latter is not absolute, for the mind rises and sinks. The mind has its substratum in the Self which is self-evident, i.e. its existence and self-luminosity are obvious. That is absolute being, continuous in sleep, waking and dream states also.
--
Sri bhagavan about manolaya.
Sri bhagavan said that everything is contained in Upadesa Saram, a copy of which the man was holding in his hand.
361
--
Swami Lokesananda, a sanyasi, asked Sri bhagavan: Is there prarabdha for a jivanmukta?
M.: Who is the questioner? From whom does the question proceed?
--
D.: According to the creed that there is no creation (ajatavada), the explanations of Sri bhagavan are faultless; but are they admissible in other schools?
M.: There are three methods of approach in Advaita vada.
--
If, for instance, Sri bhagavan be bitten by an insect, is there no sensation?
M.: There is the sensation and there is also the dehatma buddhi. The latter is common to both Jnani and ajnani with this difference, that the ajnani thinks dehaiva Atma (only the body is myself), whereas the Jnani knows all is of the Self (Atmamayam sarvam), or (sarvam khalvidam Brahma) all this is Brahma. If there be pain let it be. It is also part of the Self. The Self is poorna (perfect).
--
The conversation turned on vasanas. Sri bhagavan said that good tendencies and bad ones (suvasana and kuvasana) are concomitant
- the one cannot exist without the other. Maybe that the one class predominates. Good tendencies (suvasana) are cultivated and they must also be finally destroyed by jnana.
A young prodigy was mentioned. Sri bhagavan remarked that latent impressions of previous births (purva janma samskara) were strong in him.
D.: How does it manifest as the ability to cite well-known saints? Is it vasana in the form of a seed only?
--
Mr. Vankata Rao, an Andhra gentleman, in the course of conversation with Sri bhagavan, was told:
"Until you gain jnana you cannot understand the state of a Jnani.
--
D.: What is the relation between bhakti and jnana?
366
--
M.: Eternal, unbroken, natural state is jnana. Does it not imply love of Self? Is it not bhakti?
D.: Idol worship does not seem good. They worship the formless
--
Any bhavana premises a God with attri butes (saguna). Moreover, where is the use of discussing the form or formlessness of God?
Find out if you have a form. You can then understand God.
--
D.: This is Samkhya Yoga. Being the culmination of all kinds of other yogas, how can it be understood to start with? Is not bhakti antecedent to it?
M.: Has not Sri Krishna started the Gita with Sankhya?
--
Later Sri bhagavan continued:
There are so many theories, scriptural and scientific. Have they reached any finality? They cannot. Brahman is said to be subtler than the subtlest, wider than the widest. Anu is an atom, infinitesimal. It ends in subtle perception. The subtlety is of the sukshma body, i.e., the mind. Beyond the mind there is the Self. The greatest of things are also conceptions, the conceptions are of the mind; beyond the mind there is the Self. So the Self is subtler than the subtlest.
--
With regard to presents to Sri bhagavan, He observed: Why do they bring presents? Do I want them? Even if I refuse they thrust presents on me. What for? If I accept them I must yield to their wishes. It is like giving a bait to catch the fish. Is the angler anxious to feed the fish? No, he is anxious to feed on the fish.
Swami Lokesananda, a sannyasi: What is meant by jnana and vijnana?
--
D.: When I read Sri bhagavan's works I find that investigation is said to be the one method for Realisation.
M.: Yes, that is vichara.
--
M.: The yogis call it Kundalini Sakti. It is the same as vritti 1 of the form of God ( bhagavatakara vritti) of the bhaktas and vritti of the form of Brahman (Brahmakara vritti) of the jnanis. It must be preliminary to Realisation. The sensation produced may be said to be hot.
D.: Kundalini is said to be of the shape of a serpent but vrittis cannot be so.
--
M.: It is all meant to help the bhavana (imagery). There are books dealing with six centres (shadchakra) and many other lakshyas
(centres), internal and external. The description of the Heart is one among so many lakshyas. But it is not necessary. It is only the source of the 'I-thought'. That is the ultimate truth.
--
Later Sri bhagavan continued: The intricate maze of philosophy of different schools is said to clarify matters and reveal the Truth.
But in fact they create confusion where no confusion need exist.
--
D.: There is a short account of the spiritual experiences of St. Theresa, in the March number of the Prabuddha bharata. She was devoted to a figure of the Madonna which became animated to her sight, and she was in bliss. Is it the same as Saktipata?
M.: The animated figure indicates depth of meditation (dhyana bala).
--
Srimad bhagavad Gita says the same in a different way, "We two are not only now but have ever been so."
D.: Does not the Guru take a concrete form?
--
The Gita says: param bhavam ajanantah (Bh. Gita IX - II) - that those who cannot understand the transcendental nature (of Sri
Krishna) are fools, deluded by ignorance.
--
D.: I believe bhagavan also says so. Prof. Radhakrishnan in his Indian
Philosophy says that in his Brahma Sutra Commentary Sri Sankara makes a distinction between the two states. Is it a fact? If so, what is it? How can there be any distinction from the viewpoint of reality?
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1.3.02 - Equality The Chief Support, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The Yogic attitude consists in calm, detachment, equality, universality - added to this the psychic element, bhakti, love, devotion to the Divine.
Equality in Times of Trouble and Difficulty
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1.35 - The Tao 2, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
I also studied all varieties of Asiatic philosophy, especially with regard to the practical question of spiritual development, the Sufi doctrines, the Upanishads, the Sankhra, Veda and Vedanta, the bhagavad-Gita and Purana, the Dammapada, and many other classics, together with numerous writings on the Tantra and Yoga of such men as Patanjali, Vivekananda, etc., etc. Not a few of these teachings are as yet wholly unknown to scholars. I made the scope of my studies as comprehensive as possible, omitting no school of thought however unimportant or repugnant.
I made a critical examination of all these teachers in the light of my practical experience. The physiological and psychological uniformity of mankind guaranteed that the diversity of expression concealed a unity of significance. This discovery was confirmed, furthermore, by reference to Jewish, Greek, and Celtic traditions. One quintessential truth was common to all cults, from the Hebrides to the Yellow Sea; and even the main branches proved essentially identical. It was only the foliage that exhibited incompatibility.
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1.400 - 1.450 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
In the course of another conversation Sri bhagavan said: Photisms add zest to meditation and nothing more.
16th April, 1937
--
Japa may be done even while engaged in other work. That which is, the One Reality. It may be represented by a form, a japa, mantra, vichara or any kind of attempt. All of them finally resolve themselves into that One Single Reality. bhakti, vichara, japa are only different forms of our efforts to keep out the unreality. The unreality is an obsession at present. Reality is our true nature. We are wrongly persisting in unreality, that is, thoughts and worldly activities. Cessation of these will reveal the Truth. Our attempts are directed towards keeping them out. It is done by thinking of the Reality only. Although it is our true nature it looks as if we are thinking of the Reality. What we do really amounts to the removal of obstacles for the revelation of our true Being. Meditation or vichara is thus a reversion to our true nature.
D.: Are our attempts sure to succeed?
--
While speaking of the Brain and the Heart Sri bhagavan recalled an incident of old days as follows:Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni once argued that the brain was the most important centre and Sri bhagavan maintained that the Heart was even more so. There were others watching the discourse. A few days after
Sri bhagavan received a letter containing a short poem in English on that discourse from a young boy, N. S. Arunachalam, who had not yet matriculated.
391
--
That poem is remarkable for its poetic imagination. Sri bhagavan,
Kavyakantha, and the assemblage of other persons are represented as the Heart, the brain and the body respectively, and again as the sun, the moon and the earth also. The light from the sun is reflected on the moon and the earth is illumined. Similarly the brain acts by consciousness derived from the Heart and the body is thus protected.
This teaching of Sri bhagavan is found in Ramana Gita also. The
Heart is the most important centre from which vitality and light radiate to the brain, thus enabling it to function. The vasanas are enclosed in the Heart in their subtlest form, later flowing to the brain which reflects them highly magnified corresponding to a cinema-show at every stage. That is how the world is said to be nothing more than a cinema-show.
Sri bhagavan also added:- Were the vasanas in the brain instead of in the Heart they must be extinguished if the head is cut off so that reincarnations will be at an end. But it is not so. The Self obviously safeguards the vasanas in its closest proximity, i.e. within itself in the
Heart, just as a miser keeps his most valued possessions (treasure) with himself and never out of contact. Hence the place where the vasanas are, is the Self, i.e., the Heart, and not the brain (which is only the theatre for the play of the vasanas from the greenhouse of the Heart.)
--
Review, wondering if any instruments could be of use in detecting the Heart-centre and if proper subjects were available for recording the experience of the adepts in the spiritual path, and so on. Others were speaking. Sri bhagavan said: In the incident mentioned in the book Self-Realization that I became unconscious and symptoms of death supervened, I was all along aware. I could feel the action of the physical heart stopped and equally the action of the Heart-centre unimpaired. This state lasted about a quarter of an hour.
We asked if it was true that some disciples have had the privilege of feeling
Sri bhagavan's Heart-centre to be on the right by placing their hands on
392
--
Sri bhagavan's chest. Sri bhagavan said, "Yes." (Mr. Viswanatha Iyer,
Narayana Reddi and others have said they felt Sri bhagavan's Heartcentre to be on the right by placing their hands on his chest).
A devotee rightly observed that if hands could feel and locate the
--
Again after a few minutes Sri bhagavan continued: The mind functions both as light and as objects. If divested of things the light alone will remain over.
D.: But we must know that there is such light.
--
Theosophical Society as bright lights within the ocean of light which is nirvana. He asked Sri bhagavan how it could be possible, considering the Advaitic teaching that the nirvanic experience is the same as that of the pure consciousness of Being.
M.: Nirvana is Perfection. In the Perfect State there is neither subject nor object; there is nothing to see, nothing to feel, nothing to know.
--
With reference to the location of the Heart centre on the right side of the human body, Sri bhagavan said:I had been saying all along that the Heart centre was on the right, notwithstanding the refutation by some learned men that physiology taught them otherwise. I speak from experience. I knew it even in my home during my trances. Again during the incident related in the book Self-Realisation I had a very clear vision and experience. All of a sudden a light came from one side erasing the world vision in its course until it spread all round when the vision of the world was completely cut out. I felt the muscular organ on the left had stopped work, I could understand that the body was like a corpse, that the circulation of blood had stopped and the body became blue and motionless. Vasudeva Sastri embraced the body, wept over my death, but I could not speak. All the time I was feeling that the
Heart centre on the right was working as well as ever. This state continued
--
A middle-aged man prostrated himself before Sri bhagavan, who asked him about his well-being. After a few minutes Sri bhagavan recalled an incident saying that this was the only person whom Sri
bhagavan had slapped; it happened about 30 years earlier.
Sri bhagavan was living in Mulaippal Tirtha. There was a Jada Swami living in the neighbourhood (Mamarathu Guhai). This man, who was then about 8 years of age, used to play pranks with all, including Sri
bhagavan.
--
Palani Swami the attendant, was not there. So Sri bhagavan followed the boy to Jada Swami's place. Before bhagavan reached the place the boy had told the other that Brahmanaswami had sent him a bucket.
Jada Swami was wondering why! In a few minutes Maharshi reached the place and learnt what had passed. So he raised His hand to give a slap to the boy but the mind would not yield to slapping. But He argued within Himself and determined that the urchin should be slapped and so he did it.
--
Sri bhagavan altered it thus: Stomach addressing the prana: "O Prana!
How troublesome you are to me! You never allow me to rest but continue loading me with food off and on. It is so difficult to get on with you."
Saying it Sri bhagavan laughed. Sri bhagavan often says that He is made to eat more than is good for Him.
399
--
Sri bhagavan, while speaking of the marriage ceremony among the
Brahmins, said that the Kasiyatra represents the bridegroom to be a vairagi-purusha. It is therefore right that he should be given a kanya
--
Once on a cold day Sri bhagavan was sitting in a cave on the hill with
His hands folded on the breast as a protection against the cold. Some
Andhra visitor had come; he broke a coconut and poured the cold juice on Sri bhagavan's head as abhisheka; Sri bhagavan was surprised.
Talk 413.
--
Mr. G. V. Subbaramiah, a devotee, has written some short poems, which are interesting. Some of them refer to a child. Sri bhagavan said
God becomes a child, and vice versa. That means that the samskaras are yet latent in the child and thus its innocence is complete. When they are eradicated even a grown up man becomes a child once again, and thus remains God.
--
Sri bhagavan: Yes. The children are always in the 'home'. We too are there but are dreaming and imagining that we are outside the home.
Sri bhagavan added: I have rendered the word 'youth' (yuva) in Dakshinamurti Stotra by 'child' (bala). This seems more appropriate.
To be reborn is to become children over again. One must be reborn before gaining jnana, i.e., recovering the natural state.
--
Sri bhagavan read out some stanzas on the greatness of the Tamil language from the preface to a Tamil-Tamil Dictionary and explained the references in a very interesting manner. Of the three tests for establishing the superiority of Saivism over Jainism, the first related to Tirujnanasambandar entering the royal presence for curing the
Pandya king of his illness. The queen was anxious because of his tender age, i.e., 12 years. Tirujnanasambandar set her doubts at rest by composing a stanza which said that, though tender, he was more than a match to the strong group of innumerable Jains. While reciting the stanza Sri bhagavan choked and could not proceed with it.
The second test was the fire leaving the cadjan leaf unburnt, and the third the cadjan leaves opposing the current of the river (Tiruvedakam).
Sri bhagavan also related the story of God Isvara begging food as an old man, taking food as a youth and saving the devotee woman as a babe, all at once.
He again pointed out 'like babe, lunatic, spirit' (Balonmattapisachavat) describing the states of jnanis. There babe (bala) is given precedence over others.
--
Sri bhagavan said that Kamba Ramayana consists of 12,000 stanzas to Valmiki's 24,000. Kamba's can be understood only by the learned and not by all. Tulasidas had heard Kamba Ramayana recited to him in Hindi by a Tamil saint and later wrote his famous Ramayana.
401
--
Asked if Sri bhagavan had read Kamba Ramayana, Sri bhagavan said: No. I have not read anything. All my learning is limited to what
I learnt before my 14th year.
Since then I have had no inclination to read or learn. People wonder how I speak of bhagavad Gita, etc. It is due to hearsay. I have not read Gita nor waded through commentaries for its meaning. When I hear a sloka I think that its meaning is clear and I say it. That is all and nothing more.
Similarly with my other quotations. They come out naturally. I realise that the Truth is beyond speech and intellect. Why then should I project the mind to read, understand and repeat stanzas, etc.? Their purpose is to know the Truth. The purpose having been gained, there is no use engaging in studies.
Someone remarked: If Sri bhagavan had been inclined to study there would not be a saint today.
M.: Probably all my studies were finished in past births and I was surfeit.
--
The week before the Mahapuja (3rd June, 1937) has brought many visitors including some relatives of Sri bhagavan. There is among them an elderly lady - the widow of Subbier in whose house Sri
bhagavan was living when he left home in August 1896.
Old memories revived when Sri bhagavan saw her.
He remembered how on a festive occasion he was asked to help her in making some modakas (delicacies), but he hesitated and finally refused, because he was obliged to change his clothes and he could put on only koupina (loin-cloth or codpiece) which made him feel shy.
--
Then Sri bhagavan remarked, "If I refused to wear koupina once, I am now made to pay the penalty by wearing it always."
The lady recalled to her mind how Sri Ramana was suffering from headache for several days together.
Sri bhagavan said: Yes, yes! It was the month before I left Madura. It was not headache, but an inexpressible anguish which I suppressed at the time; these were however the outward symptoms which, I said, were due to headache. I remember how anxious you grew on account of my headache. You used to rub some ointment on my forehead every day.
My anguish continued until I left Madura and reached this place.
--
Sri bhagavan observed: There were rishis like Visvamitra who could duplicate the universe if they wished. They lived during the lifetime of Ravana who caused agony even to Sita and Rama among others. Could not Visvamitra have destroyed Ravana by his occult powers? Though capable he kept still. Why? The occurrences are known to the sages, but pass away without leaving an impression on their minds. Even a deluge will appear a trifle to them; they do not care for anything.
7th June, 1937
--
D.: I came here three years ago and Sri bhagavan said that will-power is necessary for strength of mind. Since then I have been desiring to cultivate it but without success.
M.: (No answer)
--
Purusha and Prakriti, Sri bhagavan said:
Purusha and Prakriti are only the bifurcation of the one Supreme.
--
M.: Dhyana or bhakti, which mean the same thing.
D.: What is meant by taking the name of God? How to reconcile the following two ideas?
--
Sri bhagavan remarked: People see the world. The perception implies the existence of a seer and the seen. The objects are alien to the seer. The seer is intimate, being the Self. They do not however turn their attention to finding out the obvious seer but run about analysing the seen. The more the mind expands, the farther it goes and renders Self-Realisation more difficult and complicated. The man must directly see the seer and realise the Self.
D.: So then, it amounts to synthesising phenomena and finding the one Reality behind.
--
Sri bhagavan has selected 10 stanzas from the famous work of Sri
Sankara - Sivananda Lahari - describing devotion ( bhakti):
(1) What is bhakti?
Just as the ankola fruit falling from the tree rejoins it or a piece of iron is drawn to magnet, so also thoughts, after rising up, lose themselves
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi in their original source. This is bhakti. The original source of thoughts is the feet of the Lord, Isvara. Love of His Feet forms bhakti. (61)
(2) Fruit of bhakti:
The thick cloud of bhakti, formed in the transcendental sky of the
Lord's Feet, pours down a rain of Bliss (ananda) and fills the lake of mind to overflowing. Only then the jiva, always transmigrating to no useful end, has his real purpose fulfilled. (76)
(3) Where to place bhakti?
Devotion to gods, who have themselves their origin and end, can result in fruits similarly with origin and end. In order to be in Bliss everlasting our devotion must be directed to its source, namely the
--
(4) bhakti is a matter only for experience and not for words:
How can Logic or other polemics be of real use? Can the ghatapatas
--
(8) Karma Yoga also is bhakti:
To worship God with flowers and other external objects is troublesome. Only lay the single flower, the heart, at the feet of
--
I do japa, puja, etc.; nothing seems to satisfy me. Can Sri bhagavan kindly guide me?
M.: What is that you seek to gain? Everyone seeks happiness.
--
Sri bhagavan went out for a few minutes. On his return the same man asked:
Self-realised jnanis are seen to take food and do actions like others. Do they similarly experience the states of dream and of sleep?
--
Mr. Thomas, Professor of Sanskrit, University of Oxford, had presided over the Oriental Conference in Trivandrum and on his way to Calcutta he visited Sri bhagavan. He is an elderly gentleman with a broad forehead and a quiet manner. He speaks softly and slowly. He evinces great interest in oriental literature, especially Sanskrit. He had heard of the richness of
Tamil. He desired to know which of the English translations of Srimad
--
Telang's, etc. Sri bhagavan made mention of F. T. Brooks. Mr. Thomas desires one in metrical form because it is the proper vehicle for rasa (the essence) contained in it. Rasa is also Peace, he said.
M.: Yes, Brahman is only rasa.
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi was placed in his hands, on seeing which he asked what Sri bhagavan thought of castes.
M.: The castes relate to bodies and not to Self. The Self is Bliss. To realise Bliss one realises the Self. No need to worry oneself about caste, etc.
--
He also asked Sri bhagavan which of the methods was the best for the attainment of the goal. Is not Patanjali's the best?
M.: Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah - (Yoga is to check the mind from changing) - which is acceptable to all. That is also the goal of all.
The method is chosen according to one's own fitness. The goal for all is the same. Yet different names are given to the goal only to suit the process preliminary to reaching the goal. bhakti, Yoga, Jnana are all the same. Svasvarupanusandhanam bhaktirity abhidheeyate
(Self contemplation is called bhakti).
D.: Does Sri bhagavan advocate advaita?
417
--
D.: Does bhagavan give diksha (initiation)?
M.: Mowna (silence) is the best and the most potent diksha. That was practised by Sri Dakshinamurti. Touch, look, etc., are all of a lower order. Silence (mowna diksha) changes the hearts of all. There is no Guru and no disciple.
--
The Professor was thankful. He hoped to appreciate Sri bhagavan's writings better after having seen Him and conversed with Him.
In the course of conversation, Sri bhagavan said that upasana and dhyana are possible so long as there is the mind and they must cease
418
--
Sri bhagavan smiled and said, "Go on, continue."
D.: Have you experienced nirvikalpa samadhi?
--
Another man asked: Can Sri bhagavan help us to realise the Truth?
M.: Help is always there.
--
D.: I am always at your feet. Will bhagavan give us some upadesha to follow? Otherwise how can I get the help living 600 miles away?
M.: That Sadguru is within.
--
D.: But surrender is bhakti yoga.
M.: Both are the same
--
D.: I know the Self as identical with the body. If the Self be different from the body let bhagavan tell me how to see the Self separate from the body. He has realised God. He can teach me.
M.: Why should the Self be separated from the body? Let the body remain as it is.
--
D.: Raja yoga realises through the body, senses, etc., and Sri bhagavan advises realisation by thinking. This is jnana yoga.
M.: How can you think without the body?
--
M.: It is to see the world as the Self of God. In the bhagavad Gita God is said to be various things and beings, and also the whole universe.
How to realise it or see it so? Can one see one's Self? Though not seen, can the Self be denied? What is the Truth?
--
D.: Karma, bhakti, yoga and jnana and their subdivisions only confuse the mind. To follow the elders' words seems to be the only right thing to do. What should I hold? Please tell me. I cannot sift the srutis and smritis; they are too vast. So please advise me.
(No answer.)
--
We had a great sage for our Guru. He advised us to "take the name of Hari," saying that it is all in all; no effort is necessary for concentrating the mind. Concentration will come of itself if Harinam is persisted in. So we are doing it. The Guru passed away. We felt like a rudderless ship in mid-ocean. In our anxiety to find a safe guide we read and heard of you and so desired to come here. Our desire has been fulfilled after two years' longing. On coming here and hearing Sri bhagavan we understand that the Master teaches
Atma-vichara (self-quest). This is the method of knowledge (jnana marga), whereas the other master taught us bhakti marga (method of devotion).
What shall we do now? Are we to give up the other method and take to this new method? If once we change shall we not change many times more according to the masters we meet? What progress can be made by such frequent changes? Pray remove this doubt and bless us.
--
While explaining a stanza of his own Sri bhagavan observed: The sun illumines the universe, whereas the Sun of Arunachala is so dazzling that the universe is obscured and an unbroken brilliance remains. But it is not realised in the present state and can be realised only if the lotus of the heart blossoms. The ordinary lotus blossoms in the light of the visible sun, whereas the subtle Heart blossoms only before the
Sun of Suns. May Arunachala make my heart blossom so that His unbroken brilliance may shine all alone!
Further on, Sri bhagavan continued: The mirror reflects objects; yet they are not real because they cannot remain apart from the mirror.
428
--
Explaining a stanza in Aksharamanamalai Sri bhagavan said that mowna is the highest form of upadesa. It signifies 'silence' as master, disciple and practiser. Three sanyasins, who were visiting
Sri bhagavan, began a discussion.
D.: If one remained quiet how is action to go on? Where is the place for karma yoga?
--
Mr. Grant Duff was in the hall. Sri bhagavan was mentioning some new publications and Maha Yoga among others. He also remarked that Mr. G. D. having read Sat Darsana bhashya would be surprised at the different view of Maha Yoga. Both claim to represent Sri
bhagavan's philosophy; but they differ so much that Maha Yoga actually condemns the other.
Someone cited the curious claim of Sat Darsana bhashya that individuality is retained even after the loss of ego.
Sri bhagavan remarked:
What is to be done? The Upanishads say: Brahmavid Brahmaiva bhavati (Knower of Brahman becomes Brahman). There are more than one Brahmavid at a time. "Are all of them the same? Are they not separate?" So ask some persons. They look to the bodies only. They do not look to the realisation. There is no difference in the realisation of the Brahmavid. That is the Truth. But when the question is raised from the standpoint of the body the reply is necessarily bound to be
"Yes. They are different". This is the cause of the confusion.
--
Sri bhagavan said that a saint Namah Sivaya who was formerly living in Arunachala must have undergone considerable difficulties. For he has sung a song saying: "God proves the devotee by means of severe ordeals. A washerman beats the cloth on a slab, not to tear it, but only to remove the dirt."
432
--
When Sri bhagavan had read this, a certain musician came into the hall and began to sing Tyagaraja Kirtanas in Telugu. One of them says: "Find the source of the sound which is transcendental (mooladhara sabda) by diving deep like a pearl-diver diving for pearls." Then again another song was: "For a man who has controlled his mind where is the use of tapasya?
Give up 'I-am-the-body' idea and realise 'I am not; Thou art all'."
--
Later on Sri bhagavan referred to the songs and said: Tyagaraja says well. The mind should be controlled. The question arises "What is mind?" He himself answers in the next couplet, saying that it is the "I-am-the-body" idea. The next question is how the control is effected. He answers again, saying "By complete surrender. Realise that I am not and that all is He." The song is fine and compact. He also mentions the other method, namely, control of breath.
31st January, 1938
--
Sri bhagavan remarked, "Some Sakti draws people from all parts of the globe to this centre." A devotee aptly said, "That Sakti is not different from Sri bhagavan." Sri bhagavan immediately remarked, "What Sakti drew me here originally? The same Sakti draws all others as well."
Sri bhagavan was, happily, in the mood to relate the following stories.
434
--
Sri bhagavan continued:
Thus he proved himself an unswerving Jnani. One should not be deceived by the external appearance of Jnani. Thus Vedantachudamani - V. 181.
--
Sri bhagavan now warned the hearers against the mistake of disparaging a Jnani for his apparent conduct and again cited the story of Parikshit.
He was a still-born child. The ladies cried and appealed to Sri Krishna to save the child. The sages round about wondered how Krishna was going to save the child from the effects of the arrows (apandavastra)
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1.4.01 - The Divine Grace and Guidance, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Suicide solves nothing - it only brings one back to life with the same difficulties to be faced in worse conditions. If one wishes to escape from life altogether, it can only be by the way of complete inner renunciation and merging oneself in the Silence of the Absolute or by a bhakti that becomes absolute or by a karmayoga that gives up one's own will and desires to the will of the Divine.
I have said also that the Grace can at any moment act suddenly, but over that one has no control, because it comes by an incalculable Will which sees things that the mind cannot see. It is precisely the reason why one should never despair, - that and also because no sincere aspiration to the Divine can fail in the end.
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1.4.03 - The Guru, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
To respect the spiritual attainment of X [another spiritual teacher] is all right, but it is a rule of this Yoga not to mix influences (and what he [a sadhak] has described is very much like undergoing an influence). Otherwise there may be harm done by two different methods getting mixed together - e.g. the vital being awakened to a bhakti-Ananda influence on that plane before it is purified and ready.
The Guru's Help in Difficulty
--
One can have a guru inferior in spiritual capacity (to oneself or to other gurus) carrying in him many human imperfections, and yet, if you have the faith, the bhakti, the right spiritual stuff, contact the Divine through him, attain to spiritual experiences, to spiritual realisation, even before the guru himself. Mark the "if", - for that proviso is necessary; it isn't every disciple who can do that with every guru. From a humbug you can acquire nothing but humbuggery. The guru must have something in him which makes the contact with the Divine possible, something which works even if he is not himself in his outer mind quite conscious of its action. If there is nothing at all spiritual in him he is not a guru - only a pseudo. Undoubtedly, there can be considerable differences of spiritual realisation between one guru and the other; but much depends on the inner relation between guru and shishya. One can go to a very great spiritual man and get nothing or only a little from him; one can go to a man of less spiritual capacity and get all he has to give - and more. The causes of this disparity are various and subtle; I need not expand on them here. It differs with each man. I believe the guru is always ready to give what can be given, if the disciple can receive, or it may be when he is ready to receive. If he refuses to receive or behaves inwardly or outwardly in such a way as to make reception impossible or if he is not sincere or takes up the wrong attitude, then things become difficult. But if one is sincere and faithful and has the right attitude and if the guru is a true guru, then, after whatever time, it will come.
What X quotes about the limitation of the power of the Guru to that of a teacher who shows the way but cannot help or guide is the conception of certain paths of Yoga such as the pure Adwaitin and the Buddhist which say that you must rely upon yourself and no one can help you; but even the pure Adwaitin does in fact rely upon the Guru and the chief mantra of Buddhism insists on saran.am to Buddha. For other paths of sadhana, especially those which like the Gita accept the reality of the individual soul as an "eternal portion" of the Divine or which believe that bhagavan and the bhakta are both real, the help of the Guru has always been relied upon as an indispensable aid.
I don't understand the objection to the validity of Vivekananda's experience; it was exactly the realisation which is described in the Upanishads as a supreme experience of the Self.
--
The bhakta and the Disciple
It does not strike me that Krishnaprem's letters are admirable as an apercu of current thoughts and general tendencies; it was rather his power to withdraw so completely from these thoughts and tendencies and look from a (for him) new and an abiding source of knowledge that impressed me as admirable. If he had remained interested and in touch with these current human movements, I don't suppose he would have done better with them than Romain Rolland or another. But he has gone to the
--
I would explain his progressing so far not entirely by his own superiority in the sense of a general fitness for Yoga but by the quickness and completeness with which he has taken inwardly the attitude of the bhakta and the disciple. That is a rare achievement for a modern mind, be he European or "educated" Indian; for the modern mind is analytic, dubitative, instinctively "independent" even when it wants to be otherwise; it holds itself back and hesitates in front of the Light and Influence that comes to it; it does not plunge into it with a simple directness, crying, "Here I am, ready to throw from me all that was myself or seemed to be, if so I can enter into Thee; remake my consciousness into the Truth in thy way, the way of the Divine." There is something in us that is ready for it, but there is this element that intervenes and makes a curtain of non-receptivity; I know by my own experience with myself and others how long it can make a road that could never perhaps, for us who seek the entire truth, have been short and easy, but still we might have been spared many wanderings and stand-stills and recoils and detours. All the more I admire the ease with which Krishnaprem seems to have surmounted this formidable obstacle.
I do not know if his Guru falls far short in any respect, but with the attitude he has taken, her deficiencies, if any, do not matter. It is not the human defects of the Guru that can stand in the way when there is the psychic opening, confidence and surrender. The Guru is the channel or the representative or the manifestation of the Divine, according to the measure of his personality or his attainment; but whatever he is, it is to the
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14.08 - A Parable of Sea-Gulls, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
So these three or four friends joined together and resolved to start a new life. These new-comers were first taught the lessons of long flightperhaps now they could fly some thousands of miles at a stretch without rest. One day the pioneer birdlet us give him a name "Sho bhanaka", la manire de Panchatantra e.g. Damanaka, Karataka, bhasunaka etc. for he was very fine to look at, so Sho bhanaka told his comrades: Long flight is not sufficient, not only horizontal flight but a vertical flight should be also our asset. So they attempted to fly up and up, up into the clouds and beyond as far as possible, to the extent that earth's atmosphere and gravitation would allow. They achieved this feat also and in doing so they pondered upon another mystery. Sho bhanaka said: long-distance flight whether horizontal or vertical is not sufficient, we must increase our speed, the speed of flight. And the way to increase the speed is to speed down from abovedart headlong towards earth. In this way in place of a bare fifty or sixty miles per hour they calculated they could attain the speed of sound. To break the sound-barrier is indeed an achievement for bodily speed. Now they wanted to go farther on. Added to the flight they now learnt all kinds of acrobatic movements of the bodyexactly as expert pilots do with their aeroplane, that is to say, with their gathering speed they went through all movements of vaulting, somersaulting, twirling, twisting and so on. They made their bodies a wonderful mass of supple energy and even radiant energy.
At this point one day all on a sudden they saw at a distance a bird of their kind but somewhat different, more beautiful, more glorious. They approached him, or perhaps he approached them and said, I was observing you and I found what you were doing is wonderful. Your achievement is really marvellous. But there is something more yet to do. I have come to teach you what you have still to do for your true fulfilment. Till now you were moving on the same plane, all your progress has been made in one dimension. I will explain:"You have learnt 'moving' flight. You have to learn now un-moving or still flight. This is a contradiction in terms? In the new dimension you have to reconcile or unify the contradictions. Listen carefully, I give you the mystery of still flying. It is getting as I said into another dimension of space, or another kind of spaceit is better I give you a practical demonstration." "Come," he said addressing Sho bhanaka, "Stand here on your legs straight, firm and unmovingby my side. Normally when you fly, first you have the will to fly, then that will you put forth into your body, into your muscles and nerves spreading it out as it were into your wings, making your wings mobile. Now what you have to do is an opposite movement. Instead of sending your will and energy outward, as if throwing it out, you gather the will and energy within yourself, that is, concentrate within you your will and energy instead of spilling them out. The whole thing depends upon this concentration, this gathering up your energy and will on one point within you and then just look, that is to say, with your thought or consciousness, at the point where you ant to go. It is like a strung-bow with its arrow pointing at the target. And then let yourself go as it were. Indeed if your concentration is perfect you will leap straight into your target without, as it would seem, passing through the intermediary stagestelescoping, as it were, all the intervening steps into one single stepa long jump at a lightning speed. Now try to do what I told you. Feel what I am doing."
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1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: Karma, bhakti, yoga and jnana and their subdivisions only confuse the mind. To follow the elders words seems to be the only right thing to do. What should I hold? Please tell me. I cannot sift the srutis and smritis; they are too vast. So please advise me.
(No answer.)
--
We had a great sage for our Guru. He advised us to take the name of Hari, saying that it is all in all; no effort is necessary for concentrating the mind. Concentration will come of itself if Harinam is persisted in. So we are doing it. The Guru passed away. We felt like a rudderless ship in mid-ocean. In our anxiety to find a safe guide we read and heard of you and so desired to come here. Our desire has been fulfilled after two years longing. On coming here and hearing Sri bhagavan we understand that the Master teaches
Atma-vichara (self-quest). This is the method of knowledge (jnana marga), whereas the other master taught us bhakti marga (method of devotion).
What shall we do now? Are we to give up the other method and take to this new method? If once we change shall we not change many times more according to the masters we meet? What progress can be made by such frequent changes? Pray remove this doubt and bless us.
--
While explaining a stanza of his own Sri bhagavan observed: The sun illumines the universe, whereas the Sun of Arunachala is so dazzling that the universe is obscured and an unbroken brilliance remains. But it is not realised in the present state and can be realised only if the lotus of the heart blossoms. The ordinary lotus blossoms in the light of the visible sun, whereas the subtle Heart blossoms only before the
Sun of Suns. May Arunachala make my heart blossom so that His unbroken brilliance may shine all alone!
Further on, Sri bhagavan continued: The mirror reflects objects; yet they are not real because they cannot remain apart from the mirror.
Similarly, the world is said to be a reflection in the mind as it does not remain in the absence of mind. The question arises: if the universe is a reflection, there must be a real object known as the universe in order that it might be reflected in the mind. This amounts to an admission of the existence of an objective universe. Truly speaking, it is not so.
--
Explaining a stanza in Aksharamanamalai Sri bhagavan said that mowna is the highest form of upadesa. It signifies silence as master, disciple and practiser. Three sanyasins, who were visiting
Sri bhagavan, began a discussion.
D.: If one remained quiet how is action to go on? Where is the place for karma yoga?
--
Mr. Grant Duff was in the hall. Sri bhagavan was mentioning some new publications and Maha Yoga among others. He also remarked that Mr. G. D. having read Sat Darsana bhashya would be surprised at the different view of Maha Yoga. Both claim to represent Sri
bhagavans philosophy; but they differ so much that Maha Yoga actually condemns the other.
Someone cited the curious claim of Sat Darsana bhashya that individuality is retained even after the loss of ego.
Sri bhagavan remarked:
What is to be done? The Upanishads say: Brahmavid Brahmaiva bhavati (Knower of Brahman becomes Brahman). There are more than one Brahmavid at a time. Are all of them the same? Are they not separate? So ask some persons. They look to the bodies only. They do not look to the realisation. There is no difference in the realisation of the Brahmavid. That is the Truth. But when the question is raised from the standpoint of the body the reply is necessarily bound to be
Yes. They are different. This is the cause of the confusion.
--
Sri bhagavan said that a saint Namah Sivaya who was formerly living in Arunachala must have undergone considerable difficulties. For he has sung a song saying: God proves the devotee by means of severe ordeals. A washerman beats the cloth on a slab, not to tear it, but only to remove the dirt.
25th January. 1938
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When Sri bhagavan had read this, a certain musician came into the hall and began to sing Tyagaraja Kirtanas in Telugu. One of them says: Find the source of the sound which is transcendental (mooladhara sabda) by diving deep like a pearl-diver diving for pearls. Then again another song was: For a man who has controlled his mind where is the use of tapasya?
Give up I-am-the-body idea and realise I am not; Thou art all.
--
Later on Sri bhagavan referred to the songs and said: Tyagaraja says well. The mind should be controlled. The question arises What is mind? He himself answers in the next couplet, saying that it is the I-am-the-body idea. The next question is how the control is effected. He answers again, saying By complete surrender. Realise that I am not and that all is He. The song is fine and compact. He also mentions the other method, namely, control of breath.
31st January, 1938
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Sri bhagavan remarked, Some Sakti draws people from all parts of the globe to this centre. A devotee aptly said, That Sakti is not different from Sri bhagavan. Sri bhagavan immediately remarked, What Sakti drew me here originally? The same Sakti draws all others as well.
Sri bhagavan was, happily, in the mood to relate the following stories.
I. There was king with a devoted queen. She was a devotee of Sri
--
Sri bhagavan continued:
Thus he proved himself an unswerving Jnani. One should not be deceived by the external appearance of Jnani. Thus Vedantachudamani - V. 181.
--
Sri bhagavan now warned the hearers against the mistake of disparaging a Jnani for his apparent conduct and again cited the story of Parikshit.
He was a still-born child. The ladies cried and appealed to Sri Krishna to save the child. The sages round about wondered how Krishna was going to save the child from the effects of the arrows (apandavastra)
--
Miss Umadevi, a Polish lady convert to Hinduism, asked Sri bhagavan:
I once before told Sri bhagavan how I had a vision of Siva at about the time of my conversion to Hinduism. A similar experience recurred to me at Courtallam. These visions are momentary. But they are blissful. I want to know how they might be made permanent and continuous. Without
Siva there is no life in what I see around me. I am so happy to think of
--
His. Such is surrender. This is bhakti.
Or, enquire to whom these questions arise. Dive deep in the Heart and remain as the Self. One of these two ways is open to the aspirant.
Sri bhagavan also added: There is no being who is not conscious and therefore who is not Siva. Not only is he Siva but also all else of which he is aware or not aware. Yet he thinks in sheer ignorance that he sees the
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi universe in diverse forms. But if he sees his Self he is not aware of his separateness from the universe; in fact his individuality and the other entities vanish although they persist in all their forms. Siva is seen as the universe. But the seer does not see the background itself. Think of the man who sees only the cloth and not the cotton of which it is made; or of the man who sees the pictures moving on the screen in a cinema show and not the screen itself as the background; or again the man who sees the letters which he reads but not the paper on which they are written. The objects are thus Consciousness and forms. But the ordinary person sees the objects in the universe but not Siva in these forms. Siva is the Being assuming these forms and the Consciousness seeing them. That is to say, Siva is the background underlying both the subject and the object, and again Siva in Repose and Siva in Action, or
--
Sri bhagavan mentioned Manickavachagars:
We do bhajana and the rest. But we have not seen nor heard of those who had seen Thee. One cannot see God and yet retain individuality. The seer and the seen unite into one Being. There is no cogniser, nor cognition, nor the cognised. All merge into One
Supreme Siva only!
--
Sri bhagavan answered saying: So long as the mind is considered to be an entity of the kind described, the doubt will persist. But what is mind? Let us consider. The world is seen when the man wakes up from sleep. It comes after the I-thought. The head rises up. So the mind has become active. What is the world? It is objects spread out in space. Who comprehends it? The mind. Is not the mind, which comprehends space, itself space (akasa)? The space is physical ether (bhootakasa). The mind is mental ether (manakasa) which is contained in transcendental ether (chidakasa). The mind is thus the ether principle, akasa tattva. Being the principle of knowledge (jnana sattva), it is identified with ether (akasa) by metaphysics. Considering it to be ether (akasa), there will be no difficulty in reconciling the apparent contradiction in the question. Pure mind (suddha manas) is ether (akasa). The dynamic and dull (rajas and tamas) aspects operate as gross objects, etc. Thus the whole universe is only mental.
Again, consider a man who dreams. He goes to sleep in a room with doors closed so that nothing can intrude on him while asleep. He closes his eyes when sleeping so that he does not see any object. Yet when he dreams he sees a whole region in which people live and move about with himself among them. Did this panorama get in through the doors? It was simply unfolded to him by his brain. Is it the sleepers brain or in the brain of the dream individual? It is in the sleepers brain. How does it hold this vast country in its tiny cells? This must explain the oft-repeated statement that the whole universe is a mere thought or a series of thoughts.
--
D.: Now there is the Sino-Japanese war. If it is only in imagination, can or will Sri bhagavan imagine the contrary and put an end to the war?
M.: The bhagavan of the questioner is as much a thought as the SinoJapanese war. (Laughter.)
7th February, 1938
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Mr. Dhar asked Sri bhagavan why Brahma, who is Perfection, creates and puts us to ordeals for regaining Him.
M.: Where is the individual who asks this question? He is in the universe and included in the creation. How does he raise the question when he is bound in the creation? He must go beyond it and see if any question arises then.
--
Sri bhagavan then pointed out that to see wrong in another is ones own wrong. The discrimination between right and wrong is the origin of the sin. Ones own sin is reflected outside and the individual in ignorance superimposes it on another. The best course for one is to reach the state in which such discrimination does not arise. Do you see wrong or right in your sleep? Did you not exist in sleep? Be asleep even in the wakeful state. Abide as the Self and remain uncontaminated by what goes on around.
Moreover, however much you might advise them, your hearers may not rectify themselves. Be in the right yourself and remain silent.
--
Mrs. Dhar: Sri bhagavan advises practice of enquiry even when one is engaged in external activities. The finality of such enquiry is the realisation of the Self and consequently breath must stop. If breath should stop, how will work go on or, in other words, how will breath stop when one is working?
M.: There is confusion between the means and the end (i.e., sadhana and sadhya). Who is the enquirer? The aspirant and not the siddha.
--
M.: Yes. It is bhagavan that says, Become independent and solve the riddle yourself. It is for you to do it. Again: where are you now that you ask this question? Are you in the world, or is the world within
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi you? You must admit that the world is not perceived in your sleep although you cannot deny your existence then. The world appears when you wake up. So where is it? Clearly the world is your thought.
--
The lady being laid up is unable to go to the hall and so feels unhappy that, though near, she cannot go into the hall. This was mentioned to Sri bhagavan. He said, Well, thinking like this keeps her always in the Presence. This is better than remaining in the hall and thinking of something else.
11th February, 1938
--
This cutting was read out to Sri bhagavan. He listened and remained silent. He was requested to say if contact with saints could be a danger.
Sri bhagavan then quoted a Tamil stanza which says that contact with
Guru should be kept up till videhamukti (being disembodied).
--
Mrs. Rosita Forbes was said to be in India. Sri bhagavan said: The explorers seek happiness in finding curiosities, discovering new lands and undergoing risks in adventures. They are thrilling. But where is pleasure found? Only within. Pleasure is not to be sought in the external world.
13th February, 1938
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Sri bhagavan said that non-dual idea is advised, but not advaita in action. How will one learn advaita, if one does not find a master and receive instructions? Is there not duality then? That is the meaning.
14th February, 1938
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Quoting Alexander Selkirks soliloquy, Sri bhagavan said: The happiness of solitude is not found in retreats. It may be had even in busy centres. Happiness is not to be sought in solitude or in busy centres. It is in the Self.
17th February, 1938
--
Observing the moon before the rising sun, Sri bhagavan remarked:
See the moon and also the cloud in the sky. There is no difference in their brilliance. The moon looks only like a speck of cloud. The jnanis mind is like this moon before sunlight. It is there but not shining of itself.
--
As Sri bhagavan was going through the letters which arrived this day,
He read out one of them as follows:
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi concentration. I had long been anxious to get the benefit of Sri bhagavans proximity for the successful culmination of my meditation and so came here after considerable effort. I fell ill here. I could not meditate and so I felt depressed. I made a determined effort to concentrate my mind even though
I was troubled by short and quick breaths. Though partly successful it does not satisfy me. The time for my leaving the place is drawing near. I feel more and more depressed as I contemplate leaving the place. Here I find people obtaining peace by meditation in the hall; whereas I am not blessed with such peace. This itself has a depressing effect on me.
--
D.: Sri bhagavans answers do not permit us to put further questions, not because our minds are peaceful but we are unable to argue the point. Our discontent is not at an end. For the physical ailments to go the mental ailments should go. Both go when thoughts go.
Thoughts do not go without effort. Effort is not possible with the present weakness of mind. The mind requires grace to gain strength.
Grace must manifest only after surrender. So all questions, wittingly or unwittingly, amount to asking for Sri bhagavans Grace.
M.: Smiled and said, Yes.
D.: Surrender is said to be bhakti. But Sri bhagavan is known to favour enquiry for the Self. There is thus confusion in the hearer.
M.: Surrender can take effect only when done with full knowledge.
--
D.: How is the questioner satisfied then? The only alternative left is association with the wise or devotion to God (satsanga or Isvara bhakti).
M.: Smiled and said, Yes.
--
In the course of the conversation Sri bhagavan spoke appreciatingly of the services of Palanisami and Ayyasami - his former attendants.
He said that they raised in the garden two crude platforms which were occupied by Himself and Palanisami; they were most comfortable. They were made of straw and bamboo mats and were even more comfortable than the sofa here. Palanisami used to pass through the footpath between rows of prickly pear to bring begged food every night from Kizhnathoor.
Though Sri bhagavan protested Palanisami persisted in doing so. He was
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi free from greed or attachment of any kind. He had earned some money by service in the Straits Settlements and deposited his small savings with someone in the town from whom he used to draw in his emergencies. He was offered a comfortable living in his native village which he refused and continued to live with Sri bhagavan till the end.
Ayyasami had worked under a European in South Africa and was clean, active and capable. He could manage even ten asramams at a time. He was also free from any attachment or greed. He was loyal to
--
Sri bhagavan had them read out and briefly explained their meaning.
5th March, 1938
--
A passage from Arunachala Mahatmya (the Glory of Arunachala) was read out. It related to Pangunni (a lame sage) who had his legs made whole by the grace of Sri Arunachala. Sri bhagavan then related the story of a man whom Sri Maharshi had seen when He was in Gurumurtham. The man was one Kuppu Iyer. His legs were useless and he could not walk.
He was once on his way to Vettavalam, moving on his buttocks. An old man suddenly appeared before him and said Get up and walk. Why do you move on your buttocks? Kuppu Iyer was excited and beside himself. Involuntarily he rose up and walked freely. After going a short distance, he looked behind to see the stranger who made him walk. But he could not find anyone. He narrated the incident to all those who were surprised to see him walk. Any old man in the town can bear witness to
--
Sri bhagavan explained to a retired Judge of the High Court some points in the Upadesa Saram as follows:(1) Meditation should remain unbroken as a current. If unbroken it is called samadhi or Kundalini sakti.
(2) The mind may be latent and merge in the Self; it must necessarily rise up again; after it rises up one finds oneself only as ever before.
--
The Self makes the universe what it is by His Sakti, and yet He does not Himself act. Sri Krishna says in the bhagavad Gita, I am not the doer and yet actions go on. It is clear from the Maha bharata that very wonderful actions were effected by Him. Yet He says that
He is not the doer. It is like the sun and the world actions.
--
[This devotee later explained the significance of his question. He hears Sri bhagavan say that the world goes on and the individual needs are met by Divine Will. But he finds that Sri bhagavan wakes up the Asramites at about 4 a.m. to cut vegetables for the days curry. He wanted to have the doubt cleared for his own benefit and the question was not meant for discussion].
10th March, 1938
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As Sri bhagavan was going out, the following Vedic chant was heard from a hut:
Antaraditya manasa jvalantam - Brahmana vindat. Sri bhagavan drew our attention to it and remarked:In the Taittriya Upanishad also, He is said to be made of gold, etc.
What does it all mean? Although the sun and the other luminaries are said to be self luminous, yet they do not shine forth of themselves but they shine by the light of the Supreme Being. (na tatra suryo....vi bhati). So long as they are said to be separate from Brahman their Self-luminosity is the luminosity of Brahman. All these mantras mentioning the sun, etc., speak only of Brahman.
--
D.: It is all right for mahatmas like Sri bhagavan to speak out so plainly.
Because the Truth does not swerve from you, you consider it easy for all others. Nevertheless, the common folk have a real difficulty.
--
A large group of Punjabis arrived here in a pilgrim special. They came to the Ramanasramam at about 8-45 a.m. and sat quiet for a long time. At about 9-20 one of them said: Your reputation has spread in the Punjab. We have travelled a long distance to have your darsan. Kindly tell us something by way of instruction. There was no oral reply. Sri bhagavan smiled and gazed on. After some time the visitor asked: Which is the best - the yoga, the bhakti or the jnana path? Still Sri bhagavan smiled and gazed as before.
Sri bhagavan left the hall for a few minutes. The visitors began to disperse. Still a sprinkling of them continued to sit in the hall. A long standing disciple told the visitor that Sri bhagavan had replied to his questions by His Silence which was even more eloquent than words.
After Sri bhagavan returned, the visitor began to speak a little. In the course of his speech, he asked:
D.: It is all right for those who believe in God. Others ask - Is there a God?
--
bhakti helps concentration. People fall at the feet of the bhakta. If it does not happen he feels disappointed and his bhakti fades.
M.: The longing for happiness never fades. That is bhakti.
D.: How shall I get it quicker? Suppose I concentrate two hours today.
--
D.: How shall I get the bhakti necessary for it?
M.: It is bhakti to get rid of thoughts which are only alien to you (i.e. the Self).
D.: What is thought-force, mesmerism, etc.? There was a doctor in
--
D.: So bhakti is necessary.
M.: Everything depends on the outlook. One sees that all born in
--
M.: Yes. That happens to bhaktas.
D.: A man dreams of a tiger, takes fright and wakes up. The dreamtiger appears to the dream ego who is also frightened. When he wakes up how is it that that ego disappears, and the man wakes up as the waking ego?
--
There was some reference to the heart. Sri bhagavan said: The yoga sastras speak of 72,000 nadis, of 101 nadis, etc. A reconciliation is effected by others that 101 are the main nadis, which subdivide into
72,000. These nadis are supposed by some to spread out from the brain, by others from the Heart and by some others from the coccyx.
--
Further conversation led to the question if the mind was identical with the brain. Sri bhagavan said: The mind is only a force operating on the brain. You are now here and awake. The thoughts of the world and the surroundings are in the brain within the body. When you dream you create another self who sees the world of dream creation and the surroundings just as you do now. The dream visions are in the dream brain which is again in the dream body. That is different from your present body. You
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi remember the dream now. The brains are however different. Yet the visions appear in the mind. The mind therefore is not identical with the brain. Waking, dream and sleep are for the mind only.
--
D.: Which is the best of all the religions? What is Sri bhagavans method?
M.: All religions and methods are one and the same.
--
Dr. Pande of Indore is on a visit here. He asked leave of bhagavan to ask questions so that his doubts might be cleared. He wanted to be shown a practical way to realise the Self.
M.: A man was blindfolded and left in the woods. He then enquired of the way to Gandhara from each one he met on the way until he finally reached it. So also all the ways lead to Self-Realisation.
--
Mantra, dhyana, bhakti, etc., are all aids and finally lead to
Swarupa, the Self, which is they themselves.
--
In the course of conversation Sri bhagavan continued: The mind is something mysterious. It consists of satva, rajas and tamas.
The latter two give rise to vikshepa. In the satva aspect, it remains pure and uncontaminated. So there are no thoughts there and it is identical with the Self. The mind is like akasa (ether). Just as there are the objects in the akasa, so there are thoughts in the mind. The akasa is the counterpart of the mind and objects are of thought.
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi the shadow cast by oneself. The farther one moves the farther the shadow does also. So one cannot plant ones foot on the head of the shadow. (Here Sri bhagavan related several incidents connected with shadows including the pranks of monkeys and a mirror). A child sees his own shadow and tries to hold the head of the shadow.
As he bends and puts out his arm the head moves further. The child struggles more and more. The mother, seeing the struggle, pities the young one. So she takes hold of the young hand and keeps it on his own head and tells the child to observe the head of the shadow caught in the hand. Similarly with the ignorant practiser to study the universe. The universe is only an object created by the mind and has its being in the mind. It cannot be measured as an exterior entity. One must reach the Self in order to reach the universe.
--
In the course of the discourse Sri bhagavan also made a few points clearer:
Abhyasa consists in withdrawal within the Self every time you are disturbed by thought. It is not concentration or destruction of the mind but withdrawal into the Self.
Dhyana, bhakti, japa, etc., are aids to keep out the multiplicity of thoughts. A single thought prevails which too eventually dissolves in the Self.
The questioner quoted that the mind starved of ideas amounted to realisation and asked what the experience is in that state. He himself read out a passage from Mr. Brunton that it was indescribable.
--
Sri bhagavan said it was a mirror facing another clear mirror, i.e., no reflection.
2nd May, 1938
--
Sri bhagavan read out a stanza The Black Sun from the anniversary number of The Vision, written by Swami bharatananda.
After a few minutes, Miss J. asked: One gathers from the stanza that one should keep on meditating until one gets merged in the state of consciousness. Do you think it right?
--
In the course of a reply Sri bhagavan said: Holding the mind and investigating it is advised for a beginner. But what is mind after all? It is a projection of the Self. See for whom it appears and from where it rises. The I-thought will be found to be the root-cause. Go deeper; the I-thought disappears and there is an infinitely expanded
I-consciousness. That is otherwise called Hiranyagar bha. When it puts on limitations it appears as individuals.
--
The English lady desired to have a private talk with Sri bhagavan.
She began, I am returning to England. I leave this place this evening. I want to have the happiness of Self-Realisation in my home. Of course it is not easy in the West. But I shall strive for it.
--
M.: (Sri bhagavan smiled and answered after a few minutes) Gandhiji has struggled so long to perfect himself. All others will be right in due course.
D.: Is the Hindu view of reincarnation correct?
--
(After a few minutes, Sri bhagavan remarked about Mr. Kishorelals weak body).
Mr. Kishorelal: I am asthmatic. I have never been strong. Even as a baby I was not fed on my mothers milk.
--
Sri bhagavan pointed out that everything remains already in the germinal form and so there can be nothing new.
8th May, 1938
--
In a suit by the temple against the Government regarding the ownership of the Hill Sri bhagavan was cited as a witness. He was examined by a commission. In the course of the examination-in-chief Sri bhagavan said that Siva always remains in three forms: (1) as Parabrahman (2) as Linga (here as the Hill) and (3) as Siddha. (Brahma Rupa; Linga
Rupa; Siddha Rupa).
--
Sri bhagavan had gone through Turn Eastwards - the whole book of Mademoiselle Pascaline Maillert - and spoke for about an hour on that book. He said that the writing is full of feeling and the writer is sincere. The book is written in simple style and finishes off with remembrance of Himself. A few errors here and there might be pointed out to be corrected in subsequent editions. Nandanar Charitra has been repeated twice under the mistaken notion that the incident was on two different occasions. Prithvi, Ap, etc., lingas are wrongly located. Sri bhagavan thinks the book well-written. He interprets
Turn Eastwards as Turn to the Source of Light. This book is a good supplement to Mr. Bruntons book.
--
A Cochin Brahmin, Professor in the Ernakulam College, had an interesting conversation with Sri bhagavan. Sri bhagavan advised surrender to God.
The visitor gave a glimpse of an ICS Officer. The gentleman while a student was an atheist or an agnostic. He is very pious now and the change has surprised everyone who had known him before.
In further conversation, the following points were noteworthy The visitor said: One must become satiate with the fulfilment of desires before they are renounced. Sri bhagavan smiled and cut in: Fire might as well be put out by pouring spirit over the flames.
(All laugh). The more the desires are fulfilled, the deeper grows the samskara. They must become weaker before they cease to assert themselves. That weakness is brought about by restraining oneself and not by losing oneself in desires.
--
A Swami belonging to Sri Ramakrishna Mission had a very interesting conversation with Sri bhagavan in the course of which Sri bhagavan observed:
M.: Avidya (ignorance) is the obstacle for knowing your true nature even at the present moment.
--
In the course of a different conversation. Sri bhagavan said:
Satva is the light,
--
Sri bhagavan added after a few minutes: The answer, according to sastras, will be that the body is due to karma. The question will be how did karma arise? We must say from a previous body and so on without end. The direct method of attack is not to depend on invisible hypotheses but to ask Whose Karma is it? Or whose body? Hence
I answered in this manner. This is more purposeful.
--
I am a bhakta, I am a satsangi?
M.: The method is pointed out to the seeker. The seeker has certainly not lost his individuality so far. Otherwise the question would not have arisen. The way is shown to effect the loss of individuality of the seeker. It is thus appropriate.
--
(After a pause) Is it without such saving Grace that the present awakening has come into being? (Here Sri bhagavan said that before His arrival in Tiruvannamalai in 1896, there was not any clear political thought in India. Only Dada bhai Nauroji had become an M.P.).
After a short pause, J. B. said: Sri Rajendra Prasad is such a noble and selfless worker for the country that he has sacrificed a very lucrative career for this work. The country needs him. And yet he is not in good health, and is always weak and ailing. Why should there be such cruelty to such a noble son of the country?
--
Sri bhagavan: The Master being the Self. Grace is inseparable from the Self.
Mr. L. Saluted Sri Maharshi with intense fervour, saying: that he might be enabled to realise the Truth.
--
A question about Heart. Sri bhagavan said: Leave alone the idea of right and left. They pertain to the body. The Heart is the Self.
Realise it and then you will see for yourself. (Mr. Lorey thanked
Sri bhagavan and saluted him before retiring.)
18th August, 1938
--
A visitor asked Sri bhagavan about the over-mind, and super-mind, the Psychic, the Divine of Sri Aurobindos terminology.
M.: Realise the Self or the Divine. All these differences will disappear.
--
Babu Rajendra Prasad said: I have come here with Mahatma Gandhijis permission and I must return to him soon. Can Sri bhagavan give me any message for him?
M.: Adhyatma sakti is working within him and leading him on. That is enough. What more is necessary?
--
Explaining the opening stanza of Sad Vidya, Sri bhagavan said: Sat
(Being) is Chit (Knowledge Absolute); also Chit is Sat; what is, is only one. Otherwise the knowledge of the world and of ones own being will be impossible. It denotes both being and knowledge. However, both of them are one and the same. On the other hand, be it Sat only and not Chit also, such Sat will only be insentient (jada). In order to know it another Chit will be needed; such Chit being other than
--
D.: I find that it is observed in this Asramam. Probably without the approval of Sri bhagavan others observe it here.
M.: Who are you that speak of others, etc.? Did you notice others, etc., in your sushupti?
--
An Indian I. C. S. Officer was in the hall for a few hours. He asked: Can ahimsa put an end to wars in the world? Sri bhagavan did not answer and it was time to go out for the evening walk. The next day when someone else repeated the question, Sri bhagavan said that the question contained its answer. It is patent that in a state of perfect ahimsa there can be no war.
26th August, 1938
--
Mr. Mac Iver had an interview with Sri bhagavan and spoke about diksha.
Sri bhagavan asked: What is this diksha?
After a pause, He continued, Diksha is of various kinds, by word, by sight, by touch and so forth.
D.: bhagavans is mowna diksha, is it not?
M.: Yes, this the highest form of diksha.
--
D.: From this another question arises: So long as I am at bhagavans feet, I cannot be regarded as a faithful Christian.
Sri bhagavan interrupted saying that this was the essence of
Christianity.
--
Have I bhagavans leave to look elsewhere?
M.: That is left to you.
After a pause Sri bhagavan spoke to the effect that people who come here are brought by some mysterious Power which will look to their needs. The conversation practically ended with this.
7th September, 1938
--
Sri bhagavan said: Four divisions are usual. The fifth item ullam has been brought in to correspond to five tattvas thus:
(1) Ullam (consciousness) is akasa (ether) tattva from the cranium to the brows.
--
English. Sri bhagavan was explaining its meaning. Brahmaloka may be interpreted subjectively or objectively. The latter meaning requires faith in the sastras which speak of such lokas, whereas the former meaning is purely of experience and requires no external authority. Brahmaloka would mean Brahma jnana (Knowledge of
Brahman) or Self-Realisation (Atma-Sakshatkara). Parantakala as opposed to aparantakala. In the latter the jivas pass into oblivion to take other births. Their oblivion is enveloped in ignorance (avidya).
--
Mr. T. K. S. Iyer later asked something about muktaloka (region of liberated souls). Sri bhagavan said that it meant the same as Brahmaloka.
D.: Asked if some sukshma tanu (subtle body) such as pranava tanu or suddha tanu (tanu = body; suddha = pure) was required to gain such loka.
--
To a further question, bhagavan answered: There are said to be Panchapada Mahavakyani (mahavakyas with five words) e.g.,
Tattvamasi atinijam (you are that is the great truth). The first three words have their lakshya artha (significance) all of which signify only the one Truth. So many efforts and so much discipline are said to be necessary for eradicating the non-existing avidya!
--
Sri bhagavan said: All mistake the mind-consciousness for SelfConsciousness. There is no mind in deep sleep; but no one denies his being in sleep. Even a child says on waking, I slept well, and does not deny its existence. The I rises up, the mind turns outward through the five senses and perceives objects, this they call direct perception. Asked if I is not directly perceived, they get confused, because I does not announce itself as an object in front and only the perception with the
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi senses can be recognised by them as knowledge: this habit is so strong with them. A stanza in Thevaram says: O sages, eager to get over all misery, worry not about inferences and examples! Our Light is ever shining forth from within! With mind clear, live in God!
--
bhagavan to read. Sri bhagavan softly spoke of the interpretation of the
bhashyakara and further explained the same. To consider the Brahmaloka as a region is also admissible. That is what the pouraniks say and many other schools also imply it by expounding kramamukti (liberation by degrees). But the Upanishads speak of sadyomukti (immediate liberation) as in Na tasya prana utkramanti; ihaiva praleeyante - the pranas do not rise up; they lose themselves here. So Brahmaloka will be Realisation of
--
Mr. Mac Iver, a resident devotee, asked Sri bhagavan if he might go to Switzerl and where a Guru was inviting him. Sri bhagavan said:
Some Force brought him here and the same is taking him to Europe.
--
A question arose if the world is real or unreal, since it is claimed to be both by the advaitins themselves. Sri bhagavan said that it is unreal if viewed as apart from the Self and real if viewed as the Self.
25th September, 1938
--
Sri bhagavan asked if the gentleman had read Devikalottaram. He then said that abhichara prayoga (black magic) is condemned there.
He also added that by such practices one compasses ones own ruin.
--
M.: bhakti (devotion to God).
D.: Non-resistance seems to be the only remedy for all kinds of evil such as slander.
--
Sri bhagavan said Brahmaloka is the same as Atmaloka. Again
Brahmaiva lokah = Brahmalokah (Brahma is Himself the region) and Brahma is Atma. So Brahmaloka is only the Self.
--
Mr. V. Gupta, a Telugu Pandit, is on a visit here. Sri bhagavan said in the course of conversation: Ahamkriti (the ego) is not the same as aham.
The latter is the Supreme Reality whereas the former is the ego. It is to be overcome before the Truth is realised. The Supreme Being is unmanifest and the first sign of manifestation is Aham Sphurana (light of I). The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says Aham nama a bhavat (He became I named). That is the original name of the Reality.
--
Sri bhagavan observed: Dakshinamurti observed silence when the disciples approached Him. That is the highest form of initiation. It includes the other forms. There must be subject-object relationship established in the other dikshas. First the subject must emanate and then the object. Unless these two are there how is the one to look at the other or touch him? Mowna diksha is the most perfect; it comprises looking, touching and teaching. It will purify the individual in every way and establish him in the Reality.
Talk 520.
--
A little later Sri bhagavan asked:
You say you are in the physical plane now. In which plane are you in dreamless sleep?
--
Sri bhagavan continued:
Does the body tell you that it is there? It is certainly something apart from the body that remains aware. What is it?
--
The above questions were not answered categorically. Sri bhagavan simply remarked:
Gandhiji has surrendered himself to the Divine and works accordingly with no self-interest. He does not concern himself with the results but accepts them as they turn up. That must be the attitude of national workers.
--
The following slip was also handed over to Sri bhagavan:
Four of us have come from Coorg and we had gone to Delhi to wait as a deputation on the Working Committee of the Indian National Congress and we are now going back. We are sent from the Coorg Congress
--
When this slip was handed over, Sri bhagavan said that the same answer holds good here too. The message is contained in the word Surrender.
29th September, 1938
--
A visitor asked Sri bhagavan: I want knowledge.
M.: Who wants knowledge?
--
A Pilgrims special train brought several visitors from Bengal. One of them said that he had read Mr. Paul Bruntons book and since then he was anxious to see Sri bhagavan. He also asked: How shall
I overcome my passions?
--
The visitor did not answer. Then Sri bhagavans answer was continued: Who are you? You include three aspects of life, namely, the waking, the dream and the sleep states. You were not aware of the family and their ties in your sleep and so these questions did not arise then. But now you are aware of the family and their ties and therefore you seek release. But you are the same person throughout.
D.: Because I now feel that I am in the family it is right that I should seek release.
--
A visitor asked Sri bhagavan: People give some names to God and say that the name is sacred and repetitions of the name bestow merit on the individual. Can it be true?
M.: Why not? You bear a name to which you answer. But your body was not born with that name written on it, nor did it say to anyone that it bore such and such a name. And yet a name is given to you and you answer to that name, because you have identified yourself
--
But the man did not look satisfied. Finally he wanted to retire and prayed for Sri bhagavans Grace.
Sri bhagavan now asked how mere sounds assuring him of Grace would satisfy him unless he had faith.
Both laughed and the visitor retired.
--
M.: bhavana implies khanda i.e., division.
15th October, 1938
--
In the course of conversation Sri bhagavan said that Thirujnanasambandar had sung in praise of Sri Arunachala. He also mentioned the story briefly as follows:
Jnanasambandar was born in an orthodox family about 1,500 years ago. When he was three years old his father took him to the temple in
--
He thus became one of the most famous bhaktas and was much sought after. He led a vigorous and active life; went on pilgrimage to several places in South India. He got married in his sixteenth year. The bride and the bridegroom went to have darsan of God in the local temple soon after the marriage ceremonies were over. A large party went with them. When they reached the temple the place was a blaze of light and the temple was not visible. There was however a passage visible in the blaze of light. Jnanasambandar told the people to enter the passage. They did so. He himself went round the light with his young wife, came to the passage and entered it as the others had done earlier. The Light vanished leaving no trace of those who entered it.
The temple again came into view as usual. Such was the brief but very eventful life of the sage.
--
(It was here that Sri bhagavan had that vision of Light on his way to
Tiruvannamalai in his seventeenth year. Sri bhagavan did not then know that the place was sanctified by the feet of Tirujnanasambandar some fifteen centuries ago.)
When the ancient sage was staying in Ariyanainallur an old man who carried a flower-basket came to him. The young sage asked the old man who he was. The latter replied that he was a servitor of Sri
--
Sri bhagavan continued: So this Hill must have been a dense forest
1,500 years ago. It has since been denuded of the forests by the woodcutters, etc., through these several centuries.
--
Jnanasambandar is contained in 300 slokas in Upamanyus bhakta
Charita. One of the Archakas of the temple had it with him and showed it to Sri bhagavan on the occasion of the temple suit within the last few months. Sri bhagavan copied the slokas.
Talk 530.
The following is taken from the diary of Annamalai Swami, a good devotee of Sri bhagavan and resident of Sri Ramanasramam:
The Teachings of Sri Ramana bhagavan.
(1) That man who is active in the world and yet remains desireless, without losing sight of his own essential nature, is alone a true man.
--
Sri bhagavan; they were very excited.
They said Mahatma is now fasting for twenty-one days. We want permission from Sri bhagavan to run up to Yerwada so that we may also fast as long as he does. Please permit us. We are in a haste to go. Saying so they made ready to rush out.
Sri bhagavan smiled and said, It is a good sign that you have such feelings. But what can you do now? Get the strength which Gandhiji has already got by his tapasya. You will afterwards succeed.
Talk 534.
Sri bhagavan often used to say, Mowna is the utmost eloquence.
Peace is utmost activity. How? Because the person remains in his essential nature and so he permeates all the recesses of the Self.
--
Sri bhagavan did not reply. Ten minutes passed. A few girls came for darsan of Sri bhagavan. They began to sing and dance. Their song was to the effect: We will churn the milk without losing thought of Krishna.
Sri bhagavan turned to the Swami and said that there was the reply to his question.
This state is called bhakti, Yoga and Karma.
Talk 536.
--
Once Sri bhagavan said, Desire constitutes maya, and desirelessness is God.
Talk 538.
--
When Sri bhagavan was going up the hill, the Swami asked: Does the closing or the opening of the eyes make any difference during dhyana?
M.: If you strike on a wall with a rubber-ball and you stand at a distance, the ball rebounds and runs back to you. If you stand near the wall, the ball rebounds and runs away from you. Even if the eyes are closed, the mind follows thoughts.
--
A certain visitor asked Sri bhagavan:
There is so much misery in the world because wicked men abound in the world. How can one find happiness here?
--
Many visitors came on one occasion and they all saluted Sri bhagavan with the single prayer, Make me a bhakta. Give me moksha. After they left Sri bhagavan said, thinking aloud: All of them want bhakti and moksha. If I say to them, Give yourself to me they will not. How then can they get what they want?
Talk 544.
On one occasion a few devotees were discussing among themselves the relative merits of some famous bhaktas. They did not agree among themselves and referred the matter to Sri bhagavan. He remained silent. The discussion grew hot.
Finally Sri bhagavan said: One cannot know about another nor can confer bondage or release on another. Each one desires to become famous in the world. It is natural for man. But that desire alone does not bring about the end in view. He who is not accepted by God is certainly humiliated. He who has surrendered himself, body and mind, to God becomes famous all over the world.
Talk 545.
--
Sri bhagavan about it.
Sri bhagavan listened to him and remained silent for about two minutes. Then He said: Well, the thoughts distracted you and you fought against them. That is good. Why do you continue to think of them now? Whenever such thoughts arise, consider to whom they arise and they will flee away from you.
Talk 546.
--
A visitor asked Sri bhagavan (in writing) the following questions:
(1) Were the differences in the world simultaneous, with creation?
--
After a pause, Sri bhagavan continued: if we first know our Self then all other matters will be plain to us. Let us know our Self and then enquire concerning the Creator and creation. Without first knowing the Self, to seek knowledge of God, etc., is ignorance.
A man suffering from jaundice sees everything yellow. If he tells others that all things are yellow who will accept his statement?
--
Sri bhagavan often speaks of namaskar (prostration) in the following strain: This namaskar was originally meant by the ancient sages to serve as a means of surrender to God. The act still prevails but not the spirit behind it. The doer of namaskar intends to deceive the object of worship by his act. It is mostly insincere and deceitful. It is meant to cover up innumerable sins. Can God be deceived? The man thinks that God accepts his namaskar and that he himself is free to continue his old life. They need not come to me. I am not pleased with these namaskars. The people should keep their minds clean; instead of that they bend themselves or lie prostrate before me. I am not deceived by such acts.
Talk 550.
--
Sri bhagavan. He also went to see Maj. Chadwick in his room and there he suddenly became unconscious. Maj. Chadwick requested Sri
bhagavan to see him. Sri bhagavan went into the room, took a seat and gazed on Mr. Maugham. He regained his senses and saluted Sri
bhagavan. They remained silent and sat facing each other for nearly an hour. The author attempted to ask questions but did not speak. Maj.
Chadwick encouraged him to ask. Sri bhagavan said, All finished.
Heart-talk is all talk. All talk must end in silence only. They smiled and Sri bhagavan left the room.
Talk 551.
A man asked Sri bhagavan: How is it that Atma vidya is said to be the easiest?
M.: Any other vidya requires a knower, knowledge and the object to be known, whereas this does not require any of them. It is the Self.
--
Sarvadhikari did not agree on many details and there used to be trouble between them. A was once highly disgusted with the state of affairs. He asked Sri bhagavan what could be done under the circumstances.
Sri bhagavan said: Which of the buildings was according to a plan made by these people here? God has His own plans and all these go on according to that. No one need worry as to what happens.
Talk 553.
The Asramites once asked Sri bhagavan, How were we all in our previous births? Why do we not know our own past?
M.: God in His mercy has withheld this knowledge from people.
--
Sri bhagavan once recounted how Kavyakantha Ganapathi Muni asked Him: My own opinion is that a man can live on Rs. 3 a month.
What is Sri bhagavans opinion in the matter?
M.: A man can live happily only if he knows that he requires nothing wherewith to live.
--
Maj. Chadwick asked Sri bhagavan one night: The world is said to become manifest after the mind becomes manifest. There is no mind when I sleep. Is the world not existent to others at that time? Does it not show that the world is the product of a universal mind? How then shall we say that the world is not material but only dream-like?
M.: The world does not tell you that it is of the individual mind or of the universal mind. It is only the individual mind that sees the world. When this mind disappears the world also disappears.
--
A visitor asked: Sri bhagavan! When I heard of you, a strong desire arose in me to see you. Why should it be so?
M.: The desire arose in the same way as the body arises to the Self.
--
A man asked Sri bhagavan: Sri bhagavan can know when I shall become a Jnani. Please tell me when it will be.
M.: If I am bhagavan then there is no one apart from me to whom jnana should arise or to whom I should speak. If I am an ordinary man like others then I am as ignorant as the rest. Either way your question cannot be answered.
Talk 560.
When Sri bhagavan was taking His bath a few bhaktas were around
Him, speaking to themselves. Then they asked Him about the use of ganja (hashish). Sri bhagavan had finished His bath by that time. He said: Oh ganja! The users feel immensely happy when they are under its influence. How shall I describe their happiness! They simply shout ananda! ananda ... Saying so, He walked as if tipsy. The bhaktas laughed. He appeared as if He stumbled, placed His hands round A and cried ananda! ananda!
A records that his very being was transformed from that time. He had remained an inmate for the past eight years. He further says that his mind now remains at peace.
--
Sri bhagavan illustrated it with the following story:
There was a king who treated his subjects well. One of his ministers gained his confidence and misused the influence. All the other ministers and officers were adversely affected and they hit upon a plan to get rid of him. They instructed the guards not to let the man enter the palace. The king noted his absence and enquired after him.
--
A group of people came on a visit to Sri bhagavan. One of them asked: How can I keep my mind aright?
M.: A refractory bull is lured to the stall by means of grass. Similarly the mind must be lured by good thoughts.
--
Pandit Bala Kak Dhar, a jagirdar from Kashmir, had come all the way from Srinagar to have darshan of Sri bhagavan on Deepavali Day. He gave a bundle of papers to Sri bhagavan containing an account of his life and position. His talks with Sri bhagavan were all of them personal.
One of his questions was: Now that I have had the darshan of Sri
--
M.: The bhagavad Gita says: Sanaissanairuparamet (The mind must gradually be brought to a standstill); Atma samstham manah krtva
(making the mind inhere in the Self); Abhyasa-vairagyabhyam (by practice and dispassion).
--
There is a Tamil paper Arya Dharmam. An article on Vairagyam appeared in it. Sri bhagavan read it out in answer to a question. The article was briefly as follows: vairagya = vi + raga = vigataraga (non-attachment).
Vairagya is possible only for the wise. However, it is often misapplied by the common folk. For instance, a man often says I have determined not to go to cinema shows. He calls it vairagya. Such wrong interpretation of the words and old sayings are not uncommon.
--
Sri bhagavan explained to Mr. Mac Iver the first few stanzas of Sad
Vidya as follows:
--
Mr. V. G. Sastri showed a cutting to Sri bhagavan. It contained some prophecy of Sri Rama Tirtha that India would reach the full height of her former glory before 1950 AD
Sri bhagavan said: Why should we think that India is not already in the height of her glory? The glory is in your thought.
7th November, 1938
--
In reply to Sri K. L. Sarma, Sri bhagavan spoke about Dakshinamurti stotra as follows:
I originally intended to write a commentary on it. Mr. Ranganatha Iyer took away my Tamil version of the stotra and printed it along with
--
A visitor: Nirguna upasana is said to be difficult and risky. He quoted the verse from Sri bhagavad Gita, avyaktahi etc. (the manifest, etc.)
M.: What is manifest is considered to be unmanifest and doubt is created. Can anything be more immediate and intimate than the
--
Sutra bhashya:
The sutras are meant to elucidate and establish the meanings of the texts. The commentaries try to do so by bringing in the opponents views, refuting them and arriving at conclusions after long discussions; there are also differences of opinion in the same school of thought;
--
Sri bhagavan smiled and answered: Good that they have come such a long distance for the sake of darshan. It is enough that they have said it. What is there for me to say? (Lunch bell).
At 12-45 p.m.
--
M.: Srimad bhagavad Gita says that a Jnani is the true yogi and also a true bhakta. Yoga is only a sadhana and jnana is the siddhi.
D.: Is yoga necessary?
--
All the sadhanas are called yogas, e.g., Karma yoga; bhakti yoga;
Jnana yoga; Ashtanga yoga. What is yoga? Yoga means union.
--
When a child held something to be offered to Sri bhagavan by the parents, they cajoled the child to offer it to Sri bhagavan. The child did so gladly. Sri bhagavan remarked: Look at this! When the child can give a thing away to Jeja it is tyaga. ( Jeja -God). See what influence Jeja has on children also! Every gift implies unselfishness.
That is the whole content of nishkama Karma (unselfish action). It means true renunciation. If the giving nature is developed it becomes tyaga. If anything is willingly given away it is a delight to the giver and to the receiver. If the same is stolen it is misery to both. Dana, dharma, nishkama Karma are all tyaga only. When mine is given up it is chitta suddhi (purified mind). When I is given up it is jnana.
--
He had come from Chengam in a bus. Sri bhagavan remarked, The boy has left his parents to come here. This is also an instance of tyaga.
21st. 22nd November, 1938
--
To an Andhra gentleman Sri bhagavan said: If one goes on wanting, ones wants cannot be fulfilled. Whereas if one remains desireless anything will be forthcoming. We are not in the wife, children, profession, etc.; but they are in us; they appear and disappear according to ones prarabdha.
The mind remaining still is samadhi, no matter whether the world is perceived or not.
--
Mr. V. Ganapati Sastri showed Sri bhagavan a letter from a Spanish lady,
Mercedes De Acosta, saying she would be coming here the next day. Sri
--
A certain visitor began to pull the pankah. Sri bhagavan said: Because it is cold, they have placed fire by my side. Why should the pankah be pulled?
Then he continued: On a cold morning, when I was in Virupaksha cave, I was sitting in the open. I was feeling cold. People used to come, see me and go back. A group of Andhra visitors had come. I did not notice what they were doing. They were behind me. Suddenly a noise tak - and water over my head! I shivered with cold. I looked back. They had broken a coconut and poured the water on me. They thought that it was worship. They took me for a stone image.
--
Sri bhagavan said that this town is peculiar in that there are nine roads leading to it, not counting the railroad; navadware pure dehe (in the body - the city of nine gates).
Talk 586.
--
Sri bhagavan handed over the extract from the Psychological Review of Philadelphia for her to read. He also added. The Heart is the place wherefrom the I-thought arises.
D.: So you mean the spiritual Heart as distinguished from the physical heart?
--
Both the ladies kneeled before Sri bhagavan one after another and asked for blessings. Then they left for Pondicherry on their way to Colombo.
25th November, 1938
--
To an Andhra seeker, Sri bhagavan said: Sannyasa is mentioned for one who is fit. It consists in renunciation not of material objects but of attachment to them. Sannyasa can be practised by anyone even at home. Only one must be fit for it. Again.
A Kutichaka is one who takes sannyasa and lives in a hermitage;
--
Sri bhagavan read out the extract from the Vision. It was a translation of Namdevs stanzas.
D.: How does the name help Realisation?
--
An American gentleman who also took part in the conversation would not allow Sri bhagavan to explain and so it stopped here.
Talk 592.
The Punjabi gentleman referred to the popular belief of a worm being metamorphosed to a wasp (bhramarakita nyaya) which Sri bhagavan had mentioned to the ladies in the course of conversation yesterday.
Sri bhagavan recalled some interesting reminiscences:
1. I had previously heard of this bhramarakita nyaya. After I came to
--
Sri bhagavan mentioned another interesting reminiscence. When I was a boy I had seen the fishermen divert water from its main course and keep a pot through which the diverted water flowed. The artificial way was spread with tobacco stems. Strangely enough the larger fishes always took the new way and fell into the pot. The fishermen who were simply sitting quiet used to take the fish out from the pot and throw them into their baskets. I thought at the time it was strange.
Later, when I was staying here I heard some man recite a piece from
--
Sri bhagavan said: They pray to God and finish with Thy Will be done! If His Will be done why do they pray at all? It is true that the
Divine Will prevails at all times and under all circumstances. The individuals cannot act of their own accord. Recognise the force of the Divine Will and keep quiet. Each one is looked after by God.
--
A visitor asked: Sri bhagavan said last night that God is guiding us.
Then why should we make an effort to do anything?
--
Sri bhagavan shows great humour at times: He read Upamanya bhakta
Vilas which contains a passage where Arunachalesvara is said to have
--
possessions by His bhutaganas disguised as dacoits. Sri bhagavan
remarked: Siva Himself was waylaid in Tiruvudal Utsava and He
--
Sri bhagavan remarked: Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage
is characterised by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like
--
Mr. Narayana Iyer: Sri bhagavans words are so pleasing to hear
but their import is beyond our comprehension. That seems to be
--
G. V. S.: Our grasp is only intellectual. If Sri bhagavan be pleased
to direct us with a few instructions we shall be highly benefited.
--
Sri bhagavan continued: Some people even say that while they sleep
they are enclosed somewhere in the body. They forget that such
--
the train. He left after thanking Sri bhagavan. So the conversation
ended abruptly).
--
Lady Bateman came here with her daughter to visit Sri bhagavan. She brought
a letter from Pascaline Maillert, Versailles, which reads as follows:
--
Sri bhagavan remarked with a smile, Yes, Yes, Thou art this,
that and everything except I. Why not say I am Thou and
--
A certain Andhra visitor gave Sri bhagavan a slip of paper containing
several questions which he desired to be answered. Sri bhagavan took
it in His hands, went through the questions and said:
--
Mr. Venkatakrishnayya, a lawyer-devotee, visited Sri bhagavan ten
years before and asked Him what he should do to improve himself.
Sri bhagavan told him to perform Gayatri Japa. The young man went
away satisfied. When he returned after some years, he asked:
--
he asked Sri bhagavan about it. Sri bhagavan replied casually:
Should not others besides the sannyasis enquire into the Self and
--
Sri bhagavan said to Lady Bateman: There is a fixed state; sleep,
dream and waking states are mere movements in it. They are like
--
Sri bhagavan if her interpretations were correct.
M.: The Self is beyond ignorance and knowledge. It is Absolute.
--
Lady Bateman appreciated the discourse and thanked Sri bhagavan.
Later, she said that she would be leaving the next day.
Sri bhagavan smiled and said: You do not leave one place for another.
You are always stationary. The scenes go past you. Even from the
--
Sri bhagavan, while looking into some correspondence, heard it, smiled
and said: This is the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven
--
Mrs. Hick Riddingh asked Sri bhagavan in writing:
When bhagavan writes about the help given towards attaining SelfRealisation by the gracious glance of the Master or looking upon the
Master, how exactly is this to be understood?
--
There were a few respectable men in the hall. Sri bhagavan spoke to them
some time after their arrival. Where is the use of trying to remember the
--
Mr. Raj Krishna found Sri bhagavan alone on the Hill at about 5-30
p.m. and prayed: I have been desiring since my tenth year to have a
--
by a sage like Sri bhagavan. So I pray for Thy help.
Sri bhagavan looked at him for a few minutes. The devotee interrupted,
saying: Even if I cannot realise in my life let me at least not forget
--
M.: It is said in the bhagavad Gita, Ch. VIII, that whatever may be
the last thought at death, it determines the later birth of the person.
--
Sri bhagavan has a bandage on his finger. Someone asked, What is
that? bhagavan replied: The finger came upon a knife. (The Knife
is inert, and relative to it the finger is a conscious agent).
--
Sri bhagavan said to another devotee that there are five states:
(1) Sleep, (2) Before waking, a state free from thoughts, (3) Sense of
--
A devotee asked Sri bhagavan: With every thought the subject and the
object appear and disappear. Does not the I disappear when the subject
--
Sri bhagavan for a few minutes. He said that his former visit had
had some effect but not as much as he wanted. He could concentrate
--
Sri bhagavan: There is no karma without a karta (doer). On seeking
for the doer he disappears. Where is Karma then?
--
This is Sivaratri day. Sri bhagavan was beaming with Grace in the
evening. A Sadhaka raised the following question:
--
longstanding disciple, has written a poem saying that Sri bhagavans
instructions could not be carried out by him effectively in practice.
--
Saying this Sri bhagavan smiled.
Talk 631.
--
At about 9 a.m., Sri bhagavan was reading the tapals. The brother
of the patient appeared in the hall with an anxious look to ask Sri
--
came to the hall on behalf of the sufferer. Sri bhagavan continued to
read the tapals. In a few minutes another devotee also came there for
the same purpose. Sri bhagavan asked: Did you call the doctor?
D.: Yes, but he is too busy in the hospital.
--
Soon bhagavan left the hall and went to the patients side, massaged
him gently and placed His hand on the heart and the other on his
--
relieved. Sri bhagavan returned to the hall. Someone offered soap
and water to Sri bhagavan to wash his hands. But he declined them
and rubbed His hands over His body. However the patient passed
--
A well-known devotee remarked: Sri bhagavan appears so
unconcerned under all circumstances. But He is all along so loving
--
Then Sri bhagavan remarked: To go to Kailas and return is just a
new birth. For there the body-idea drops off.
--
Sri bhagavan said that progress is for the mind and not for the Self.
The Self is ever perfect.
--
promptly told them that they should not disturb Sri bhagavans rest at
this hour. Sri bhagavan quietly got down from the sofa and came out
of the hall; He sat on the stone pavement adjoining the wall and asked
--
While speaking to Mr. K. L. Sarma of Pudukotah, Sri bhagavan said:
Leaving out what is intimate and immediate, why should one seek the
--
At about 4 p.m. Sri bhagavan, who was writing something intently,
turned His eyes slowly towards the window to the north; He closed
--
time Sri bhagavan went out).
Talk 641.
Explaining the opening stanza of the Sad Vidya, Sri bhagavan
observed: The world is always apparent to everyone. All must know
--
Svasvarupanusandhanam bhaktirityabhidhiyate.
Again - Svatmatattvanusadhanam bhaktirityapare joguh.
What is the difference between the two?
--
Sri bhagavan said after a few minutes: This will work in him. The
discourse will have its effect.
--
To explain evolution Sri bhagavan continued:
One sees an edifice in his dream. It rises up all of a sudden. Then
--
Later in the evening, another devotee said to Sri bhagavan that the
Muslim official continued to speak of the same topic to the Municipal
--
Then Sri bhagavan said: He says that body and soul together form
the man. But I ask what is the state of the man in deep sleep. The
--
General remarks by Sri bhagavan:
All knowledge is meant only to lead the person to the realisation
--
The man assumed an aggressive attitude and did not listen. Sri bhagavan
tried to explain, but he would not allow Sri bhagavan to do so.
Finally Sri bhagavan said: This is not the attitude of the seeker.
When someone teaches humility to the seeker, he will reach the
--
Sri bhagavan again said: The seeker must listen and try to understand.
If on the other hand he wants to prove me, let him do so by all
--
tried to bring him round. He became worse. Sri bhagavan finally said: Go
back the way you came. Do it externally or internally, as it suits you.
--
At night, after supper, Sri bhagavan spoke of one Govinda Yogi, a
Malayali Brahmin pandit of some repute, who used to extol yoga and
--
Later Sri bhagavan spoke appreciating the amiability of Amritanatha. He
is a great tapasvi, who had made considerable japa. He had fed the poor
--
Sri bhagavan referred to the following passage of Gandhiji in the
Harijan of the 11th instant:
--
Sri bhagavan remarked how true the words were and emphasised each
statement in the extract. Then He cited Thayumanavar in support of
--
Sri bhagavan said that Tatva Rayar was the first to pour forth
Advaita philosophy in Tamil.
--
Then Sri bhagavan continued: I had no cloth spread on the floor in
earlier days. I used to sit on the floor and lie on the ground. That
--
Srimad bhagavad Gita says: I am the prop for Brahman. In another
place, it says: I am in the heart of each one. Thus the different
--
An Andhra gentleman of middle age asked Sri bhagavan how he
should make his japa.
--
D.: Will bhakti lead to mukti?
M.: bhakti is not different from mukti. bhakti is being as the Self
(Swarupa). One is always that. He realises it by the means he
adopts. What is bhakti? To think of God. That means: only one
thought prevails to the exclusion of all other thoughts. That thought
--
of thoughts is bhakti. It is also mukti.
The jnana method is said to be vichara (enquiry). That is nothing but
--
You think that bhakti is meditation on the Supreme Being. So long
as there is vi bhakti (the sense of separateness), bhakti (reunion)
is sought. The process will lead to the ultimate goal as is said in
Srimad bhagavad Gita:
arto jignasuh artharthi jnani cha bharatarsha bha
tesham jnani nityayukta eka bhaktir visishyate
--
and so fearless, dwitiyat vai bhayam bhavati - only the existence of
a second gives rise to fear. This is mukti. It is also bhakti.
23rd March, 1939
--
some difficulty in understanding them, he asked Sri bhagavan about
them. Sri bhagavan said: Those portions deal with theories of creation.
They are not material because the Srutis do not mean to set forth such
--
Later, Sri bhagavan continued: The Vedanta says that the cosmos
springs into view simultaneously with the seer. There is no detailed
--
A certain person had composed verses in praise of Sri bhagavan. Therein the
word Avartapuri occurs. Sri bhagavan said that it means Tiruchuzhi, the
birth place of Sri bhagavan. The place goes by different names. Avarta
chuzhi an eddy. There had been several deluges. God Siva had saved this
--
of the bathers become dark after bathing in it. Sri bhagavan said he
had noted it when He was a boy.
--
came on a visit to the hall. One of them asked Sri bhagavan: I seem
to be wandering in a forest because I do not find the way.
--
Sri bhagavata; it says that Bliss can be had only by the dust of the
Masters feet. I pray for Grace.
|
1.450 - 1.500 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Miss Umadevi, a Polish lady convert to Hinduism, asked Sri bhagavan:
I once before told Sri bhagavan how I had a vision of Siva at about the time of my conversion to Hinduism. A similar experience recurred to me at Courtallam. These visions are momentary. But they are blissful. I want to know how they might be made permanent and continuous. Without
Siva there is no life in what I see around me. I am so happy to think of
--
His. Such is surrender. This is bhakti.
Or, enquire to whom these questions arise. Dive deep in the Heart and remain as the Self. One of these two ways is open to the aspirant.
Sri bhagavan also added: There is no being who is not conscious and therefore who is not Siva. Not only is he Siva but also all else of which he is aware or not aware. Yet he thinks in sheer ignorance that he sees the
440
--
Sri bhagavan mentioned Manickavachagar's:
"We do bhajana and the rest. But we have not seen nor heard of those who had seen Thee." One cannot see God and yet retain individuality. The seer and the seen unite into one Being. There is no cogniser, nor cognition, nor the cognised. All merge into One
Supreme Siva only!
--
Sri bhagavan answered saying: So long as the mind is considered to be an entity of the kind described, the doubt will persist. But what is mind? Let us consider. The world is seen when the man wakes up from sleep. It comes after the 'I-thought'. The head rises up. So the mind has become active. What is the world? It is objects spread out in space. Who comprehends it? The mind. Is not the mind, which comprehends space, itself space (akasa)? The space is physical ether (bhootakasa). The mind is mental ether (manakasa) which is contained in transcendental ether (chidakasa). The mind is thus the ether principle, akasa tattva. Being the principle of knowledge (jnana sattva), it is identified with ether (akasa) by metaphysics. Considering it to be ether (akasa), there will be no difficulty in reconciling the apparent contradiction in the question. Pure mind (suddha manas) is ether (akasa). The dynamic and dull (rajas and tamas) aspects operate as gross objects, etc. Thus the whole universe is only mental.
Again, consider a man who dreams. He goes to sleep in a room with doors closed so that nothing can intrude on him while asleep. He closes his eyes when sleeping so that he does not see any object. Yet when he dreams he sees a whole region in which people live and move about with himself among them. Did this panorama get in through the doors? It was simply unfolded to him by his brain. Is it the sleeper's brain or in the brain of the dream individual? It is in the sleeper's brain. How does it hold this vast country in its tiny cells? This must explain the oft-repeated statement that the whole universe is a mere thought or a series of thoughts.
--
D.: Now there is the Sino-Japanese war. If it is only in imagination, can or will Sri bhagavan imagine the contrary and put an end to the war?
M.: The bhagavan of the questioner is as much a thought as the SinoJapanese war. (Laughter.)
7th February, 1938
--
Mr. Dhar asked Sri bhagavan why Brahma, who is Perfection, creates and puts us to ordeals for regaining Him.
M.: Where is the individual who asks this question? He is in the universe and included in the creation. How does he raise the question when he is bound in the creation? He must go beyond it and see if any question arises then.
--
Sri bhagavan then pointed out that to see wrong in another is one's own wrong. The discrimination between right and wrong is the origin of the sin. One's own sin is reflected outside and the individual in ignorance superimposes it on another. The best course for one is to reach the state in which such discrimination does not arise. Do you see wrong or right in your sleep? Did you not exist in sleep? Be asleep even in the wakeful state. Abide as the Self and remain uncontaminated by what goes on around.
Moreover, however much you might advise them, your hearers may not rectify themselves. Be in the right yourself and remain silent.
--
Mrs. Dhar: Sri bhagavan advises practice of enquiry even when one is engaged in external activities. The finality of such enquiry is the realisation of the Self and consequently breath must stop. If breath should stop, how will work go on or, in other words, how will breath stop when one is working?
M.: There is confusion between the means and the end (i.e., sadhana and sadhya). Who is the enquirer? The aspirant and not the siddha.
--
M.: Yes. It is bhagavan that says, "Become independent and solve the riddle yourself. It is for you to do it." Again: where are you now that you ask this question? Are you in the world, or is the world within
447
--
The lady being laid up is unable to go to the hall and so feels unhappy that, though near, she cannot go into the hall. This was mentioned to Sri bhagavan. He said, "Well, thinking like this keeps her always in the Presence. This is better than remaining in the hall and thinking of something else."
11th February, 1938
--
This cutting was read out to Sri bhagavan. He listened and remained silent. He was requested to say if contact with saints could be a danger.
Sri bhagavan then quoted a Tamil stanza which says that contact with
Guru should be kept up till videhamukti (being disembodied).
--
Mrs. Rosita Forbes was said to be in India. Sri bhagavan said: The explorers seek happiness in finding curiosities, discovering new lands and undergoing risks in adventures. They are thrilling. But where is pleasure found? Only within. Pleasure is not to be sought in the external world.
13th February, 1938
--
Sri bhagavan said that non-dual idea is advised, but not advaita in action. How will one learn advaita, if one does not find a master and receive instructions? Is there not duality then? That is the meaning.
450
--
Quoting Alexander Selkirk's soliloquy, Sri bhagavan said: The happiness of solitude is not found in retreats. It may be had even in busy centres. Happiness is not to be sought in solitude or in busy centres. It is in the Self.
17th February, 1938
--
Observing the moon before the rising sun, Sri bhagavan remarked:
See the moon and also the cloud in the sky. There is no difference in their brilliance. The moon looks only like a speck of cloud. The jnani's mind is like this moon before sunlight. It is there but not shining of itself.
--
As Sri bhagavan was going through the letters which arrived this day,
He read out one of them as follows:
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi concentration. I had long been anxious to get the benefit of Sri bhagavan's proximity for the successful culmination of my meditation and so came here after considerable effort. I fell ill here. I could not meditate and so I felt depressed. I made a determined effort to concentrate my mind even though
I was troubled by short and quick breaths. Though partly successful it does not satisfy me. The time for my leaving the place is drawing near. I feel more and more depressed as I contemplate leaving the place. Here I find people obtaining peace by meditation in the hall; whereas I am not blessed with such peace. This itself has a depressing effect on me.
--
D.: Sri bhagavan's answers do not permit us to put further questions, not because our minds are peaceful but we are unable to argue the point. Our discontent is not at an end. For the physical ailments to go the mental ailments should go. Both go when thoughts go.
Thoughts do not go without effort. Effort is not possible with the present weakness of mind. The mind requires grace to gain strength.
Grace must manifest only after surrender. So all questions, wittingly or unwittingly, amount to asking for Sri bhagavan's Grace.
M.: Smiled and said, "Yes."
D.: Surrender is said to be bhakti. But Sri bhagavan is known to favour enquiry for the Self. There is thus confusion in the hearer.
M.: Surrender can take effect only when done with full knowledge.
--
D.: How is the questioner satisfied then? The only alternative left is association with the wise or devotion to God (satsanga or Isvara bhakti).
M.: Smiled and said, "Yes."
--
In the course of the conversation Sri bhagavan spoke appreciatingly of the services of Palanisami and Ayyasami - his former attendants.
He said that they raised in the garden two crude platforms which were occupied by Himself and Palanisami; they were most comfortable. They were made of straw and bamboo mats and were even more comfortable than the sofa here. Palanisami used to pass through the footpath between rows of prickly pear to bring begged food every night from Kizhnathoor.
Though Sri bhagavan protested Palanisami persisted in doing so. He was
453
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi free from greed or attachment of any kind. He had earned some money by service in the Straits Settlements and deposited his small savings with someone in the town from whom he used to draw in his emergencies. He was offered a comfortable living in his native village which he refused and continued to live with Sri bhagavan till the end.
Ayyasami had worked under a European in South Africa and was clean, active and capable. He could manage even ten asramams at a time. He was also free from any attachment or greed. He was loyal to
--
Sri bhagavan had them read out and briefly explained their meaning.
5th March, 1938
--
A passage from Arunachala Mahatmya (the Glory of Arunachala) was read out. It related to Pangunni (a lame sage) who had his legs made whole by the grace of Sri Arunachala. Sri bhagavan then related the story of a man whom Sri Maharshi had seen when He was in Gurumurtham. The man was one Kuppu Iyer. His legs were useless and he could not walk.
He was once on his way to Vettavalam, moving on his buttocks. An old man suddenly appeared before him and said "Get up and walk. Why do you move on your buttocks?" Kuppu Iyer was excited and beside himself. Involuntarily he rose up and walked freely. After going a short distance, he looked behind to see the stranger who made him walk. But he could not find anyone. He narrated the incident to all those who were surprised to see him walk. Any old man in the town can bear witness to
--
Sri bhagavan explained to a retired Judge of the High Court some points in the Upadesa Saram as follows:(1) Meditation should remain unbroken as a current. If unbroken it is called samadhi or Kundalini sakti.
(2) The mind may be latent and merge in the Self; it must necessarily rise up again; after it rises up one finds oneself only as ever before.
--
The Self makes the universe what it is by His Sakti, and yet He does not Himself act. Sri Krishna says in the bhagavad Gita, "I am not the doer and yet actions go on". It is clear from the Maha bharata that very wonderful actions were effected by Him. Yet He says that
He is not the doer. It is like the sun and the world actions.
--
[This devotee later explained the significance of his question. He hears Sri bhagavan say that the world goes on and the individual needs are met by Divine Will. But he finds that Sri bhagavan wakes up the Asramites at about 4 a.m. to cut vegetables for the day's curry. He wanted to have the doubt cleared for his own benefit and the question was not meant for discussion].
10th March, 1938
--
As Sri bhagavan was going out, the following Vedic chant was heard from a hut:
Antaraditya manasa jvalantam - Brahmana vindat. Sri bhagavan drew our attention to it and remarked:In the Taittriya Upanishad also, He is said to be made of gold, etc.
What does it all mean? Although the sun and the other luminaries are said to be self luminous, yet they do not shine forth of themselves but they shine by the light of the Supreme Being. (na tatra suryo....vi bhati). So long as they are said to be separate from Brahman their 'Self-luminosity' is the luminosity of Brahman. All these mantras mentioning the sun, etc., speak only of Brahman.
--
D.: It is all right for mahatmas like Sri bhagavan to speak out so plainly.
Because the Truth does not swerve from you, you consider it easy for all others. Nevertheless, the common folk have a real difficulty.
--
A large group of Punjabis arrived here in a pilgrim special. They came to the Ramanasramam at about 8-45 a.m. and sat quiet for a long time. At about 9-20 one of them said: "Your reputation has spread in the Punjab. We have travelled a long distance to have your darsan. Kindly tell us something by way of instruction." There was no oral reply. Sri bhagavan smiled and gazed on. After some time the visitor asked: "Which is the best - the yoga, the bhakti or the jnana path?" Still Sri bhagavan smiled and gazed as before.
Sri bhagavan left the hall for a few minutes. The visitors began to disperse. Still a sprinkling of them continued to sit in the hall. A long standing disciple told the visitor that Sri bhagavan had replied to his questions by His Silence which was even more eloquent than words.
After Sri bhagavan returned, the visitor began to speak a little. In the course of his speech, he asked:
D.: It is all right for those who believe in God. Others ask - Is there a God?
--
bhakti helps concentration. People fall at the feet of the bhakta. If it does not happen he feels disappointed and his bhakti fades.
460
--
M.: The longing for happiness never fades. That is bhakti.
D.: How shall I get it quicker? Suppose I concentrate two hours today.
--
D.: How shall I get the bhakti necessary for it?
M.: It is bhakti to get rid of thoughts which are only alien to you (i.e. the Self).
D.: What is thought-force, mesmerism, etc.? There was a doctor in
--
D.: So bhakti is necessary.
M.: Everything depends on the outlook. One sees that all born in
--
M.: Yes. That happens to bhaktas.
D.: A man dreams of a tiger, takes fright and wakes up. The dreamtiger appears to the dream ego who is also frightened. When he wakes up how is it that that ego disappears, and the man wakes up as the waking ego?
--
There was some reference to the heart. Sri bhagavan said: The yoga sastras speak of 72,000 nadis, of 101 nadis, etc. A reconciliation is effected by others that 101 are the main nadis, which subdivide into
72,000. These nadis are supposed by some to spread out from the brain, by others from the Heart and by some others from the coccyx.
--
Further conversation led to the question if the mind was identical with the brain. Sri bhagavan said: The mind is only a force operating on the brain. You are now here and awake. The thoughts of the world and the surroundings are in the brain within the body. When you dream you create another self who sees the world of dream creation and the surroundings just as you do now. The dream visions are in the dream brain which is again in the dream body. That is different from your present body. You
471
--
D.: Which is the best of all the religions? What is Sri bhagavan's method?
M.: All religions and methods are one and the same.
--
Dr. Pande of Indore is on a visit here. He asked leave of bhagavan to ask questions so that his doubts might be cleared. He wanted to be shown a practical way to realise the Self.
M.: A man was blindfolded and left in the woods. He then enquired of the way to Gandhara from each one he met on the way until he finally reached it. So also all the ways lead to Self-Realisation.
--
Mantra, dhyana, bhakti, etc., are all aids and finally lead to
Swarupa, the Self, which is they themselves.
--
In the course of conversation Sri bhagavan continued: The mind is something mysterious. It consists of satva, rajas and tamas.
The latter two give rise to vikshepa. In the satva aspect, it remains pure and uncontaminated. So there are no thoughts there and it is identical with the Self. The mind is like akasa (ether). Just as there are the objects in the akasa, so there are thoughts in the mind. The akasa is the counterpart of the mind and objects are of thought.
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi the shadow cast by oneself. The farther one moves the farther the shadow does also. So one cannot plant one's foot on the head of the shadow. (Here Sri bhagavan related several incidents connected with shadows including the pranks of monkeys and a mirror). A child sees his own shadow and tries to hold the head of the shadow.
As he bends and puts out his arm the head moves further. The child struggles more and more. The mother, seeing the struggle, pities the young one. So she takes hold of the young hand and keeps it on his own head and tells the child to observe the head of the shadow caught in the hand. Similarly with the ignorant practiser to study the universe. The universe is only an object created by the mind and has its being in the mind. It cannot be measured as an exterior entity. One must reach the Self in order to reach the universe.
--
In the course of the discourse Sri bhagavan also made a few points clearer:
Abhyasa consists in withdrawal within the Self every time you are disturbed by thought. It is not concentration or destruction of the mind but withdrawal into the Self.
Dhyana, bhakti, japa, etc., are aids to keep out the multiplicity of thoughts. A single thought prevails which too eventually dissolves in the Self.
The questioner quoted that the mind starved of ideas amounted to realisation and asked what the experience is in that state. He himself read out a passage from Mr. Brunton that it was indescribable.
--
Sri bhagavan said it was a mirror facing another clear mirror, i.e., no reflection.
2nd May, 1938
--
Sri bhagavan read out a stanza "The Black Sun" from the anniversary number of The Vision, written by Swami bharatananda.
After a few minutes, Miss J. asked: One gathers from the stanza that one should keep on meditating until one gets merged in the state of consciousness. Do you think it right?
--
In the course of a reply Sri bhagavan said: "Holding the mind and investigating it is advised for a beginner. But what is mind after all? It is a projection of the Self. See for whom it appears and from where it rises. The 'I-thought' will be found to be the root-cause. Go deeper; the 'I-thought' disappears and there is an infinitely expanded
'I-consciousness'. That is otherwise called Hiranyagar bha. When it puts on limitations it appears as individuals."
--
The English lady desired to have a private talk with Sri bhagavan.
She began, "I am returning to England. I leave this place this evening. I want to have the happiness of Self-Realisation in my home. Of course it is not easy in the West. But I shall strive for it.
--
M.: (Sri bhagavan smiled and answered after a few minutes) Gandhiji has struggled so long to perfect himself. All others will be right in due course.
D.: Is the Hindu view of reincarnation correct?
--
(After a few minutes, Sri bhagavan remarked about Mr. Kishorelal's weak body).
Mr. Kishorelal: I am asthmatic. I have never been strong. Even as a baby I was not fed on my mother's milk.
--
Sri bhagavan pointed out that everything remains already in the germinal form and so there can be nothing new.
490
--
In a suit by the temple against the Government regarding the ownership of the Hill Sri bhagavan was cited as a witness. He was examined by a commission. In the course of the examination-in-chief Sri bhagavan said that Siva always remains in three forms: (1) as Parabrahman (2) as Linga (here as the Hill) and (3) as Siddha. (Brahma Rupa; Linga
Rupa; Siddha Rupa).
--
Sri bhagavan had gone through "Turn Eastwards" - the whole book of Mademoiselle Pascaline Maillert - and spoke for about an hour on that book. He said that the writing is full of feeling and the writer is sincere. The book is written in simple style and finishes off with remembrance of Himself. A few errors here and there might be pointed out to be corrected in subsequent editions. Nandanar Charitra has been repeated twice under the mistaken notion that the incident was on two different occasions. Prithvi, Ap, etc., lingas are wrongly located. Sri bhagavan thinks the book well-written. He interprets
"Turn Eastwards" as "Turn to the Source of Light". This book is a good supplement to Mr. Brunton's book.
--
A Cochin Brahmin, Professor in the Ernakulam College, had an interesting conversation with Sri bhagavan. Sri bhagavan advised surrender to God.
The visitor gave a glimpse of an ICS Officer. The gentleman while a student was an atheist or an agnostic. He is very pious now and the change has surprised everyone who had known him before.
In further conversation, the following points were noteworthy The visitor said: "One must become satiate with the fulfilment of desires before they are renounced." Sri bhagavan smiled and cut in: "Fire might as well be put out by pouring spirit over the flames.
(All laugh). The more the desires are fulfilled, the deeper grows the samskara. They must become weaker before they cease to assert themselves. That weakness is brought about by restraining oneself and not by losing oneself in desires.
--
A Swami belonging to Sri Ramakrishna Mission had a very interesting conversation with Sri bhagavan in the course of which Sri bhagavan observed:
M.: Avidya (ignorance) is the obstacle for knowing your true nature even at the present moment.
--
In the course of a different conversation. Sri bhagavan said:
Satva is the light,
|
1.45 - The Corn-Mother and the Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
farm' (_gort a bhaile_), in the shape of an imaginary old woman
(_cailleach_), to feed till next harvest. Much emulation and
|
1.48 - The Corn-Spirit as an Animal, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
the corn was cut. The sheaf was called the _goabbir bhacagh,_ that
is, the Cripple Goat. The custom appears not to be extinct at the
|
15.07 - Souls Freedom, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It would mean for us naturally a change of dress for good many a time perhaps. There seems to be no other way. But a change of dress is inevitable and should be welcome, for kept on too long it would stink. A dip in the Vaitarni or Acheron (if we happen to be in Greece) would be wholesome. There is however always the possibility of a miracle happening: to this Mother was referring very often. In that case you might learn to change, to renew yourselves in the inner way, even like the Vedic cows: as the Rishi saysPaliknirid yuvatayo bhavantieven those of them who were grey with age, became young again.1
Naturally it does not matter at all to the Divine, the supreme consciousness the whole eternity is his play-field, a million years this side or that do not count for Him anything.
|
1.550 - 1.600 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Sri bhagavan. He also went to see Maj. Chadwick in his room and there he suddenly became unconscious. Maj. Chadwick requested Sri
bhagavan to see him. Sri bhagavan went into the room, took a seat and gazed on Mr. Maugham. He regained his senses and saluted Sri
534
--
Chadwick encouraged him to ask. Sri bhagavan said, "All finished.
Heart-talk is all talk. All talk must end in silence only." They smiled and Sri bhagavan left the room.
Talk 551.
A man asked Sri bhagavan: "How is it that Atma vidya is said to be the easiest?"
M.: Any other vidya requires a knower, knowledge and the object to be known, whereas this does not require any of them. It is the Self.
--
Sarvadhikari did not agree on many details and there used to be trouble between them. 'A' was once highly disgusted with the state of affairs. He asked Sri bhagavan what could be done under the circumstances.
Sri bhagavan said: "Which of the buildings was according to a plan made by these people here? God has His own plans and all these go on according to that. No one need worry as to what happens."
Talk 553.
The Asramites once asked Sri bhagavan, "How were we all in our previous births? Why do we not know our own past?"
M.: God in His mercy has withheld this knowledge from people.
--
Sri bhagavan once recounted how Kavyakantha Ganapathi Muni asked Him: My own opinion is that a man can live on Rs. 3 a month.
What is Sri bhagavan's opinion in the matter?
M.: A man can live happily only if he knows that he requires nothing wherewith to live.
--
Maj. Chadwick asked Sri bhagavan one night: The world is said to become manifest after the mind becomes manifest. There is no mind when I sleep. Is the world not existent to others at that time? Does it not show that the world is the product of a universal mind? How then shall we say that the world is not material but only dream-like?
M.: The world does not tell you that it is of the individual mind or of the universal mind. It is only the individual mind that sees the world. When this mind disappears the world also disappears.
--
A visitor asked: "Sri bhagavan! When I heard of you, a strong desire arose in me to see you. Why should it be so?"
M.: The desire arose in the same way as the body arises to the Self.
--
A man asked Sri bhagavan: "Sri bhagavan can know when I shall become a Jnani. Please tell me when it will be."
M.: If I am bhagavan then there is no one apart from me to whom jnana should arise or to whom I should speak. If I am an ordinary man like others then I am as ignorant as the rest. Either way your question cannot be answered.
Talk 560.
When Sri bhagavan was taking His bath a few bhaktas were around
Him, speaking to themselves. Then they asked Him about the use of ganja (hashish). Sri bhagavan had finished His bath by that time. He said: "Oh ganja! The users feel immensely happy when they are under its influence. How shall I describe their happiness! They simply shout ananda! ananda ..." Saying so, He walked as if tipsy. The bhaktas laughed. He appeared as if He stumbled, placed His hands round 'A' and cried "ananda! ananda!"
'A' records that his very being was transformed from that time. He had remained an inmate for the past eight years. He further says that his mind now remains at peace.
--
Sri bhagavan illustrated it with the following story:
There was a king who treated his subjects well. One of his ministers gained his confidence and misused the influence. All the other ministers and officers were adversely affected and they hit upon a plan to get rid of him. They instructed the guards not to let the man enter the palace. The king noted his absence and enquired after him.
--
A group of people came on a visit to Sri bhagavan. One of them asked: "How can I keep my mind aright?"
M.: A refractory bull is lured to the stall by means of grass. Similarly the mind must be lured by good thoughts.
--
Pandit Bala Kak Dhar, a jagirdar from Kashmir, had come all the way from Srinagar to have darshan of Sri bhagavan on Deepavali Day. He gave a bundle of papers to Sri bhagavan containing an account of his life and position. His talks with Sri bhagavan were all of them personal.
One of his questions was: "Now that I have had the darshan of Sri
--
M.: The bhagavad Gita says: Sanaissanairuparamet (The mind must gradually be brought to a standstill); Atma samstham manah krtva
(making the mind inhere in the Self); Abhyasa-vairagyabhyam (by practice and dispassion).
--
There is a Tamil paper Arya Dharmam. An article on Vairagyam appeared in it. Sri bhagavan read it out in answer to a question. The article was briefly as follows: vairagya = vi + raga = vigataraga (non-attachment).
Vairagya is possible only for the wise. However, it is often misapplied by the common folk. For instance, a man often says "I have determined not to go to cinema shows." He calls it vairagya. Such wrong interpretation of the words and old sayings are not uncommon.
--
Sri bhagavan explained to Mr. Mac Iver the first few stanzas of Sad
Vidya as follows:
--
Mr. V. G. Sastri showed a cutting to Sri bhagavan. It contained some prophecy of Sri Rama Tirtha that India would reach the full height of her former glory before 1950 AD
Sri bhagavan said: Why should we think that India is not already in the height of her glory? The glory is in your thought.
7th November, 1938
--
In reply to Sri K. L. Sarma, Sri bhagavan spoke about Dakshinamurti stotra as follows:
I originally intended to write a commentary on it. Mr. Ranganatha Iyer took away my Tamil version of the stotra and printed it along with
--
A visitor: Nirguna upasana is said to be difficult and risky. He quoted the verse from Sri bhagavad Gita, avyaktahi etc. (the manifest, etc.)
M.: What is manifest is considered to be unmanifest and doubt is created. Can anything be more immediate and intimate than the
--
Sutra bhashya:-
The sutras are meant to elucidate and establish the meanings of the texts. The commentaries try to do so by bringing in the opponent's views, refuting them and arriving at conclusions after long discussions; there are also differences of opinion in the same school of thought;
--
Sri bhagavan smiled and answered: Good that they have come such a long distance for the sake of darshan. It is enough that they have said it. What is there for me to say? (Lunch bell).
At 12-45 p.m.
--
M.: Srimad bhagavad Gita says that a Jnani is the true yogi and also a true bhakta. Yoga is only a sadhana and jnana is the siddhi.
D.: Is yoga necessary?
--
All the sadhanas are called yogas, e.g., Karma yoga; bhakti yoga;
Jnana yoga; Ashtanga yoga. What is yoga? Yoga means 'union'.
--
When a child held something to be offered to Sri bhagavan by the parents, they cajoled the child to offer it to Sri bhagavan. The child did so gladly. Sri bhagavan remarked: Look at this! When the child can give a thing away to Jeja it is tyaga. ( Jeja -God). See what influence Jeja has on children also! Every gift implies unselfishness.
That is the whole content of nishkama Karma (unselfish action). It means true renunciation. If the giving nature is developed it becomes tyaga. If anything is willingly given away it is a delight to the giver and to the receiver. If the same is stolen it is misery to both. Dana, dharma, nishkama Karma are all tyaga only. When 'mine' is given up it is chitta suddhi (purified mind). When 'I' is given up it is jnana.
--
He had come from Chengam in a bus. Sri bhagavan remarked, "The boy has left his parents to come here. This is also an instance of tyaga."
21st. 22nd November, 1938
--
To an Andhra gentleman Sri bhagavan said: If one goes on wanting, one's wants cannot be fulfilled. Whereas if one remains desireless anything will be forthcoming. We are not in the wife, children, profession, etc.; but they are in us; they appear and disappear according to one's prarabdha.
556
--
Mr. V. Ganapati Sastri showed Sri bhagavan a letter from a Spanish lady,
Mercedes De Acosta, saying she would be coming here the next day. Sri
--
A certain visitor began to pull the pankah. Sri bhagavan said: "Because it is cold, they have placed fire by my side. Why should the pankah be pulled?"
Then he continued: "On a cold morning, when I was in Virupaksha cave, I was sitting in the open. I was feeling cold. People used to come, see me and go back. A group of Andhra visitors had come. I did not notice what they were doing. They were behind me. Suddenly a noise 'tak' - and water over my head! I shivered with cold. I looked back. They had broken a coconut and poured the water on me. They thought that it was worship. They took me for a stone image."
--
Sri bhagavan said that this town is peculiar in that there are nine roads leading to it, not counting the railroad; navadware pure dehe (in the body - the city of nine gates).
557
--
Sri bhagavan handed over the extract from the Psychological Review of Philadelphia for her to read. He also added. The Heart is the place wherefrom the 'I-thought' arises.
D.: So you mean the spiritual Heart as distinguished from the physical heart?
--
Both the ladies kneeled before Sri bhagavan one after another and asked for blessings. Then they left for Pondicherry on their way to Colombo.
25th November, 1938
--
To an Andhra seeker, Sri bhagavan said: Sannyasa is mentioned for one who is fit. It consists in renunciation not of material objects but of attachment to them. Sannyasa can be practised by anyone even at home. Only one must be fit for it. Again.
558
--
Sri bhagavan read out the extract from the Vision. It was a translation of Namdev's stanzas.
D.: How does the name help Realisation?
--
An American gentleman who also took part in the conversation would not allow Sri bhagavan to explain and so it stopped here.
563
--
The Punjabi gentleman referred to the popular belief of a worm being metamorphosed to a wasp (bhramarakita nyaya) which Sri bhagavan had mentioned to the ladies in the course of conversation yesterday.
Sri bhagavan recalled some interesting reminiscences:
1. "I had previously heard of this bhramarakita nyaya. After I came to
--
Sri bhagavan mentioned another interesting reminiscence. "When I was a boy I had seen the fishermen divert water from its main course and keep a pot through which the diverted water flowed. The artificial way was spread with tobacco stems. Strangely enough the larger fishes always took the new way and fell into the pot. The fishermen who were simply sitting quiet used to take the fish out from the pot and throw them into their baskets. I thought at the time it was strange.
Later, when I was staying here I heard some man recite a piece from
--
Sri bhagavan said: They pray to God and finish with "Thy Will be done!" If His Will be done why do they pray at all? It is true that the
Divine Will prevails at all times and under all circumstances. The individuals cannot act of their own accord. Recognise the force of the Divine Will and keep quiet. Each one is looked after by God.
--
A visitor asked: Sri bhagavan said last night that God is guiding us.
Then why should we make an effort to do anything?
--
Sri bhagavan shows great humour at times: He read Upamanya bhakta
Vilas which contains a passage where Arunachalesvara is said to have robbed Tirujnanasambandar and his group of followers of all their possessions by His bhutaganas disguised as dacoits. Sri bhagavan remarked: "Siva Himself was waylaid in Tiruvudal Utsava and He practised the same trick on His devotees. Can it be so?"
572
--
Sri bhagavan remarked: Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterised by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a fast rotating top (gyroscope). Its very speed cannot be followed by the eye and so it appears to be still. Yet it is rotating. So is the apparent inaction of the sage.
This must be explained because the people generally mistake stillness to be inertness. It is not so.
|
1.57 - Public Scapegoats, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
cholera rages among the bhars, Mallans, and Kurmis of India, they
take a goat or a buffalo--in either case the animal must be a
--
Himalayas, take a dog, intoxicate him with spirits and bhang or
hemp, and having fed him with sweetmeats, lead him round the village
|
17.11 - A Prayer, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
May the divine Master, Guru bhaskara, protect us from every evil and danger. May he manifest himself to reveal the essential mystery of his path of worship and to spread the true tradition of Knowledge.
OM! I bow to the lotus feet of the most revered Guru!
|
18.04 - Modern Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Purnenduprasad bhattacharya
Tremblingly I Wait
--
Sanjoy bhattacharya
My Mind Must Have Yearned
--
Sanjoy bhattacharya
The Shadow of the Harbour
--
Sanjaya bhattacharya
Water Lotus
--
Sisir bhattacharya
One by One I Catch the Stars
|
1.83 - Epistola Ultima, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Swami Vivekananda summarised Yoga under four headings, and I do not think that one can improve on that classification. His four are: Gnana, Raja, bhakti and Hatha, and comprise all divisions that it is desirable to make. As soon as one begins to add such sections as Mantra Yoga, you are adding to without enriching the classification, and once you begin where are you to stop? But I honestly believe that the excessive simplication given in Eight Lectures on Yoga is a practical advantage. Any given type of Yogas is the work of a lifetime and for that reason alone it is desirable to confine oneself from the beginning to an absolutely simple programme.
What then is the difference between Yoga and Magick? Magick is extraversion, the discovery of and subsequently the classification of and finally the control of new worlds on new planes. So far as it concerns the development of the mind its object and method are perfectly simple. What is wanted is exaltation. The aim is to identify oneself with the highest essence of whatever world is under consideration.
--
bhagavad Gita 157
Sex and Character, Weiniger 173
|
1929-04-14 - Dangers of Yoga - Two paths, tapasya and surrender - Impulses, desires and Yoga - Difficulties - Unification around the psychic being - Ambition, undoing of many Yogis - Powers, misuse and right use of - How to recognise the Divine Will - Accept things that come from Divine - Vital devotion - Need of strong body and nerves - Inner being, invariable, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Divine always brings with it perfect calm and peace. A certain class of bhaktas, it is true, present generally a very different picture; they jump about and cry and laugh and sing, in a fit of devotion, as they say. But in reality such people do not live in the Divine. They live largely in the vital world.
You say that even Ramakrishna had periods of emotional excitement and would go about with hands uplifted, singing and dancing? The truth of the matter is this. The movement in the inner being may be perfect; but it puts you in a certain condition of receptivity to forces that fill you with intense emotional excitement, if your external being is weak or untransformed. Where the external being offers resistance to the inner being or cannot hold the entirety of the Ananda, there is this confusion and anarchy in expression.
|
1954-06-16 - Influences, Divine and other - Adverse forces - The four great Asuras - Aspiration arranges circumstances - Wanting only the Divine, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He was speaking of human love manifesting as bhakti, as a force of devotion for the Divine, and he says that at the beginning your love for the Divine is a very human love with all the characteristics of human love. He describes this very well, besides. Yet if you persist and make the necessary effort, it is not impossible for this human love to be transformed into divine love through identification with what you love. He has not said that the love between two persons can change into divine love. It is not that at all! He has always said the opposite. He spoke about someone who had asked him about devotion, you know, about the sadhaks love for the Divine. At the beginning your love is altogether human and he speaks of it even as commercial barter. If you make progress, your love will change into divine love, into true devotion.
Why do we sometimes have a special preference for a certain chapter, for instance, the one on sincerity or aspiration?
|
1958-08-15 - Our relation with the Gods, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Be voluptuous and pleasurable, O bhaga;
Be tender and kind and loving and passionate, O Mitra.
|
1960 04 07? - 28, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In the bhagavad Gita, the legendary battle-field where the Pandavas, led by Sri Krishna, and the Kauravas confronted each other.
Governed by tamas, the principle of inertia and obscurity.
|
1960 06 08, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
37Some say Krishna never lived, he is a myth. They mean on earth; for if Brindavan existed nowhere, the bhagavat1 could not have been written.
Does Brindavan exist anywhere else than on earth?
--
So the writer or writers of the bhagavat were certainly in contact with a whole inner world that is well and truly real and existent, where they saw and experienced everything they have described or revealed.
Whether Krishna existed or not in a human form, living on earth, is only of very secondary importance (except perhaps from an exclusively historical point of view), for Krishna is a real, living and active being; and his influence has been one of the great factors in the progress and transformation of the earth.
--
The story of Krishna, as related in the bhagavat Purana.
***
|
1960 06 29, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(2) The colloquy at Kurukshetra is the bhagavad Gita.
Sri Aurobindo considers the message of the Gita to be the basis of the great spiritual movement which has led and will lead humanity more and more to its liberation, that is to say, to its escape from falsehood and ignorance, towards the truth.
|
1961 02 02, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
55Be wide in me, O Varuna; be mighty in me, O Indra; O Sun, be very bright and luminous; O Moon, be full of charm and sweetness. Be fierce and terrible, O Rudra; be impetuous and swift, O Maruts; be strong and bold, O Aryama; be voluptuous and pleasurable, O bhaga; be tender and kind and loving and passionate, O Mitra. Be bright and revealing, O Dawn; O Night, be solemn and pregnant. O Life, be full, ready and buoyant; O Death, lead my steps from mansion to mansion. Harmonise all these, O Brahmanaspati. Let me not be subject to these gods, O Kali.
Why does Sri Aurobindo give more importance to Kali?
|
1970 03 19?, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
408I am not a bhakta, for I have not renounced the world for God. How can I renounce what He took from me by force and gave back to me against my will? These things are too hard for me.
409I am not a bhakta, I am not a Jnani, I am not a worker for the Lord. What am I then? A tool in the hands of my Master, a flute blown upon by the divine Herd-Boy, a leaf driven by the breath of the Lord.
410Devotion is not utterly fulfilled till it becomes action and knowledge. If thou pursuest after God and canst overtake Him, let Him not go till thou hast His reality. If thou hast hold of His reality, insist on having also His totality. The first will give thee divine knowledge, the second will give thee divine works and a free and perfect joy in the universe.
|
1.kbr - Dohas (Couplets) I (with translation), #Songs of Kabir, #Kabir, #Sufism
Pothi Padh Padh Kar Jag Mua, Pandit bhayo Na Koye
Dhai Aakhar Prem Ke, Jo Padhe so Pandit Hoye
|
1.kbr - Dohas II (with translation), #Songs of Kabir, #Kabir, #Sufism
Kabir Man Nirmal bhaya, Jaise Ganga Neer
Pache Pache Har Phire, Kahat Kabir Kabir
|
1.kbr - Tentacles of Time, #Songs of Kabir, #Kabir, #Sufism
Kahe Kabir Suno bhai Sadho
bhatak Maro Mat Koi
|
1.kbr - The bhakti path..., #Songs of Kabir, #Kabir, #Sufism
object:1.kbr - The bhakti path...
author class:Kabir
--
The bhakti path winds in a delicate way.
On this path there is no asking and no not asking.
|
1.kbr - The bhakti path winds in a delicate way, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
object:1.kbr - The bhakti path winds in a delicate way
author class:Kabir
--
English version by Robert Bly Original Language Hindi The bhakti path winds in a delicate way. On this path there is no asking and not asking. The ego simply disappears the moment you touch him. The joy of looking for him is so immense that you just dive in, and coast around like a fish in the water. If anyone needs a head, the lover leaps up to offer his. Kabir's poems touch on the secrets of this bhakti. [bk1sm.gif] -- from The Kabir Book: Forty-Four fo the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir, Translated by Robert Bly <
|
1.kbr - The Spiritual Athlete Often Changes The Color Of His Clothes, #Songs of Kabir, #Kabir, #Sufism
reads the bhagavad-Gita, and becomes a terrific talker.
Kabir says: Actually you are going in a hearse
|
1.kbr - Where do you search me, #Songs of Kabir, #Kabir, #Sufism
Kahet Kabir Suno bhai Sadho
Mein To Hun Viswas Mein
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1.nmdv - Laughing and playing, I came to Your Temple, O Lord, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by S Abnashi Singh and Gurvinder Singh Original Language Hindi Laughing and playing, I came to Your Temple, O Lord. While Naam Dayv was worshipping, he was grabbed and driven out. I am of a low social class, O Lord; why was I born into a family of fabric dyers? I picked up my blanket and went back, to sit behind the temple. As Naam Dayv uttered the Glorious Praises of the Lord, the temple turned around to face the Lord's humble devotee. Shabad by bhagat Nam Dev in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib on how he had the darshan of the Lord. Nam Dev milked the brown cow, and brought a cup of milk and a jug of water to his family god. Please drink this milk, O my Sovereign Lord God. Drink this milk and my mind will be happy. Otherwise, my father will be angry with me. Taking the golden cup, Nam Dev filled it with the ambrosial milk, and placed it before the Lord. The Lord looked upon Nam Dev and smiled. This one devotee abides within my heart. The Lord drank the milk, and the devotee returned home. Thus did Nam Dev come to receive the Blessed Vision of the Lord's Darshan. <
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1.rmpsd - Once for all, this time, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
I have learnt the secret of bhava.
A man has come to me from a country
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1.rmpsd - Who is that Syama woman, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
standing on bhava?
All Her modesty gone,
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1.rt - Akash Bhara Surya Tara Biswabhara Pran (Translation), #Tagore - Poems, #Rabindranath Tagore, #Poetry
object:1.rt - Akash bhara Surya Tara Biswa bhara Pran (Translation)
author class:Rabindranath Tagore
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This transcreation of the song Akash bhara surya tara biswa bhara pran was created by Kumud Biswas. As he says . . "Listening to Debabrata Biswas singing this wonderful song is a rare experience."
Translated by Kumud Biswas
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1.rt - All These I Loved, #Tagore - Poems, #Rabindranath Tagore, #Poetry
Transcreation of the song Eito bhalo legechhilo from the collection Gitapanchashika by Rabindranath Tagore. A recording of this song has been made by Debabrata Biswas. Transcreation by Kumud Biswas.
Sal Groves (line 4) refers to Shorea robusta, the sal tree. It is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae.
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1.rt - And In Wonder And Amazement I Sing, #Tagore - Poems, #Rabindranath Tagore, #Poetry
Transcreation of the song Akash bhara surya tara biswa bhara pran by Rabindranath Tagore. Listening to Debabrata Biswas singing this wonderful song is a rare experience. Transcreation by Kumud Biswas.
Translated by Kumud Biswas
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1.rt - The Music Of The Rains, #Tagore - Poems, #Rabindranath Tagore, #Poetry
A transcreation of one of the sweetest songs of the rains Jabe rimiki jhimiki jhare bhadarer dhara by Rabindranath Tagore. Translated by Kumud Biswas.
Translated by Kumud Biswas
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1.rt - Your flute plays the exact notes of my pain. (from The Lover of God), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Tony Stewart and Chase Twitchell Original Language Bengali Your flute plays the exact notes of my pain. It toys with me. Where did you learn such stealth, such subtle wounding, Kan? The arrows in my breast burn even in rain and wind. Wasted moments pulse around me, wishes and desires, departing happiness -- Master, my soul scorches. I think you can see its heat in my eyes, its intensity and cruelty. So let me drown in the cool and consoling Yamuna, or slake my desire in your cool, consoling, changing-moon face. It's the face I'll see in death. Here's my wish and pledge: that that same moon will spill its white pollen down through the roof of flowers into the grove, where I'll consecrate my life to it forever, and be its flute-breath, the perfume that hangs upon the air, making all the young girls melancholy. That's my prayer. Oh, the two of you, way out of earshot. If you look back you'll see me, bhanu, warming herself at the week embers of the past. [2260.jpg] -- from The Lover of God, by Rabindranath Tagore / Translated by Tony Stewart <
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20.01 - Charyapada - Old Bengali Mystic Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
bhade says: "It is my misfortune,
But I have eaten up the dominion of my consciousness!
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2.01 - AT THE STAR THEATRE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Captain sends his mother to Benares now and then. Twelve or thirteen servants attend her there; it is very expensive. Captain knows the Vednta, the Git, and the bhagavata by heart. He says that the educated gentlemen of Calcutta follow the ways of the mlechchhas.
"In his earlier years he practised hathayoga. That is why he strokes my head gently when I am in samdhi. His wife worships the Deity in another form-that of Gopala. This time I didn't find her so miserly. She too knows the Git and other scriptures. What devotion they have!
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MASTER: "Rkhl had his first religious ecstasy while sitting here massaging my feet. A bhagavata scholar had been expounding the sacred book in the room. As Rkhl listened to his words, he shuddered every now and then. Then he became altogether still.
"His second ecstasy was at Balarm Bose's house. In that state he could not keep himself sitting upright; he lay flat on the floor. Rkhl belongs to the realm of the Personal God. He leaves the place if one talks about the Impersonal.
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" bhavanath and Narendra are a pair. They are like man and woman. So I asked bhavanath to rent a house near Narendra's. Both of them belong to the realm of the formless Reality.
Master warns the devotees about women
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"Listen to a story. There were two friends. One went into a house of prostitution and the other to hear a recital of the bhagavata. 'What a shame!' thought the first. 'My friend is hearing spiritual discourse, but just see what I have slipped down to!' The second friend said to himself: 'Shame on me! My friend is having a good time, but how stupid I am!'
After death the soul of the first was taken to Vaikuntha by the messenger of Vishnu, while that of the second was taken to the nether world of Yama."
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Hazra entered the room. He had been living with Sri Ramakrishna in the temple garden for the past two years and had first met the Master in 1880 at Sihore in the house of Hriday, the Master's nephew. Hazra's native village was near Sihore, and he owned some property there. He had a wife and children and also some debts. From youth he had felt a spirit of renunciation and sought the company of holy men and devotees. The Master had asked him to live with him at Dakshineswar and looked after his necessities. Hazra's mind was a jumble of undigested religious moods. He professed the path of knowledge and disapproved of Sri Ramakrishna's attitude of bhakti and his longing for the young devotees. Now and then he thought of the Master as a great soul, but again he slighted him as an ordinary human being. He spent much of his time in telling his beads, and he criticized Rkhl and the other young men for their indifference to the practice. He was a strong advocate of religious conventions and rules of conduct, and made a fad of them.
He was about thirty-eight years old.
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HAZRA: "Does God listen to our prayer for bhakti?"
MASTER: "Surely. I can assure you of that a hundred times. But the prayer must be genuine and earnest. Do worldly-minded people weep for God as they do for wife and children? At Kamarpukur the wife of a certain man fell ill. The man thought she would not recover; he began to tremble and was about to faint. Who feels that way for God?"
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"Radha was mad with prema, ecstatic love of God. But there is also the madness of bhakti. Hanuman's was such. When he saw Sita entering the fire he was going to kill Rma. Then, too, there is the madness of Knowledge. I once saw a Jnni behaving like a madman. He came here very soon after the temple garden was dedicated. People said he belonged to the Brahmo Sa bha of Rammohan Roy. He had a torn shoe on one foot, a stick in one hand, and a potted mango-plant in the other. After a dip in the Ganges he went to the Kli temple where Haladhri was seated. With great fervour he began to chant a hymn to the Divine Mother. Then he went up to a dog, held it by the ear, and ate some of its food. The dog didn't mind. Just at that time I too was about to experience the state of divine madness. I threw my arm around Hriday's neck and said, 'Oh, Hride! Shall I too fall into that plight?'
Master's God-intoxicated condition
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A DEVOTEE: "How can a householder keep on with his worldly duties if he is overwhelmed by such bhakti-madness or Love-madness or Knowledge madness?"
Two kinds of yogis
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The first scene depicts a council of Sin and the Six Passions. On a forest path behind them walk Viveka, Vairgya, and bhakti, engaged in conversation.
bhakti says to her companions: "Gaurnga is born in Nadia. Therefore the vidyadharis, the munis, and the rishis have come down to earth in disguise to pay their respects to him."
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2.01 - Mandala One, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
(4) May Indra and the Maruts discern for us paths for our easy progress and Pushan and bhaga, gods desirable.
(5) Yea and ye, O Pushan, Vishnu and thou who movest in all motions, make for us our thoughts such as are led by the rays of illumination and full of happiness.
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(7) Thou, O Soma, both for him who is already great in the Truth and for him who is young in the Truth, establishest bhaga in joyaunce that has power for life.
(8) Keep us, O Soma, O King, from all that seeks to become evil in us; let not him come to hurt who is a friend of such a one as thou.
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(17) The sons of Vrishagira, Rijraswa with those who stand behind him and Ambarisha and Sahadeva and bhayamana and Suradhas, O Indra, speak the utterance that is an opulent joy of thee, of thee the Mighty One.
(18) The Lord of the thunderbolt to whom the many call shall slay, shall crush down on our earth the embattled Renders and Destroyers and with his white-shining comrades conquer the Field and conquer the Sun and conquer the Waters.
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(5) The sister of bhaga, the twin of Varuna, Usha, goddess of Truth, thou first of the gods cleave to us; afterwards is he to be crushed who is the establisher of sin; him may we conquer by Reason with the speed of her chariot.
(6) May the true lights arise in us, may those that hold this mansion; the forces of the night flaming pure join them; our desirable possessions hidden away by the darkness the wide-shining Dawns reveal.
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2.01 - On Books, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
These people have a very crude notion of Yoga. They think it is something like the Guru asking the disciple to repeat the Name, or the Mantra, and then the Guru's Kripa raining down in abundance upon them. All his pleading shows a want of balance and an emotional temperament. If he were in earnest he would have taken my refusal in another fashion. The old bhakti Yoga seems to have done so much harm. People think that Yoga is very easy and simple.
Disciple: X is very sincere, I don't think he knew about the rule of informing before coming here.
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There is also a very fine description of Jada bharata.
Disciple: Did Jada bharata exist?
Sri Aurobindo: I don't know, but he appears very real in the Purana. It is also the most anti-Buddhist Purana I believe.
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Charu Chandra Dutt's review of The Life Divine in the Vishva bharati was read out to Sri Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo: He may continue it, it may be for some people an introduction to The Life Divine.
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Disciple: His contention is that there are hints and suggestions in the Gita that can mean transformation. For instance, it says that one must become the instrument in the hands of the Divine. Then it says: pt madbhvam gath Those who strive become pure and attain to my nature of becoming. Also: nistraiguyo bhava become free from the three modes.
Sri Aurobindo: There is no transformation there. The supramental transformation is not at all hinted at in the Gita. The Gita lays stress on certain broad lines of the integral supramental Yoga. For instance:
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It is asserted that one " bhasker Shastri Joshi gave him lessons in Sanskrit and Gujarati." Sri Aurobindo did not learn Sanskrit from anyone at Baroda. He read the Maha bharata by himself and also read works of Kalidas and one drama of bhavabhuti as well as Ramayana.
It is stated that Sri Aurobindo's patriotism got the religious colour by his contact with one Swami Hamsa. Swami Hamsa had nothing to do with his nationalism. He was a Hathayogi and Sri Aurobindo attended his lecture in the palace on invitation. He did not meet him at his place.
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6. bhawni Mandir: There is a similarity to the Ananda Math in that both envisage spiritual life and politics together. The temple of bhawani was to be there for initiating men for complete consecration to the service of Mother India. It was for preparing political Sannyasins. But this scheme did not get materialised. Sri Aurobindo took to politics and Barin to revolution. The latter tried to find a place in the Vindhya mountains for the bhawani Mandir. But he came back with mountain fever.
Norton's eloquent advocacy in the court, or the government's repression, had nothing to do with the failure of the scheme. In fact it was never tried.
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Disciple: Through one of the four Yogas: Raja, Jnana, Karma and bhakti. One has to see this sense-world and the Super-ego-world in the light of the Absolute Divine.
Disciple: He believes this is the spontaneous Purna Yoga.
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bharati Sara bhai's poetical work The Peoples Well was received.
Sri Aurobindo: The English is good and the diction poetic but the poetry is mostly lacking.
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2.01 - The Preparatory Renunciation, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
We have now finished the cobsideration of what may be called the preparatory bhakti, and are entering on the study of the Para- bhakti, or supreme devotion. We have to speak of a preparation to the practice of this Para- bhakti. All such preparations are intended only for the purification of the soul. The repetition of names, the rituals, the forms, and the symbolsall these various things are for the purification of the soul. The greatest purifier among all such things, a purifier without which no one can enter the regions of this higher devotion (Para- bhakti), is renunciation, This frightens many: yet, without it, there cannot be any spiritual growth.
In all our Yogas this renunciation is necessary. This is the stepping-stone and the real centre and the real heart of all spiritual culture-renunciation. This is religionrenunciation.
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Of all renunciations, the most natural, so to say, is that of the bhakti-Yogi. Here, there is no violence, nothing to give up, nothing to tear off, as it were, from ourselves, nothing from which we have violently to separate ourselves; the bhaktas renunciation is easy, smooth, flowing, and as natural as the things around us. We see the manifestation of this sort of renunciation, although more or less in the form of caricatures, every day around us. A man begins to love a woman; after a while he loves another, and the first woman he lets go. She drops out of his mind smoothly, gently, without his feeling the want of her at all. A woman loves .a man; she then begins to love another man, and the first one drops off from her mind quite naturally. A man loves his own city, then he begins to love his country; and the intense love for his little city drops off smoothly, naturally. Again, a man learns to love the whole world; his love for his country, his intense, fanatical patriotism drops off without hurting him, without any manifestation of violence. An uncultured man loves the pleasures of the senses intensely; as he becomes cultured, he begins to love intellectual pleasures, and his sense-enjoyments become less and less. No man can enjoy a meal with the same gusto or pleasure as a dog or a wolf; but those pleasures which a man gets from intellectual experiences and achievements, the dog can never enjoy. At first, pleasure, is in association with the lower senses; but as soon as an animal reaches a higher plane of existence, the lower kind of pleasures becomes less intense. In human society, the nearer the man is to the animal, the stronger is his pleasure in the senses; and the higher and the more cultured the man is, the greater is his pleasure in intellectual. and such other finer pursuits. So, when a man gets even higher than the plane of the intellect, higher than that of mere thought, when he gets to the plane of spirituality and of divine inspiration, he finds there a state of bliss, compared with which all the pleasures of the senses, or even of the intellect, are as nothing. When the moon shines brightly, all the stars become dim; and when the sun shines, the moon herself becomes dim. The renunciation necessary for the attainment of bhakti is not obtained by killing anything, but just comes, in as naturally as in the presence of an increasingly stronger light, the less intense ones become dimmer and dimmer until they vanish away completely. So this love of the pleasures of the senses and of the intellect js all made dim and thrown aside and cast into the shade by the love of God Himself. That love of God grows and assumes a form which, is called Para- bhakti, or supreme devotion. Forms vanish, rituals flyaway, books are superseded, images, temples, churches, religions and sects, countries and nationalitiesall these little limitations, and bondages fall off by their own nature from him who knows this love of God. Nothing remains to bind him or fetter his freedom. A ship, all of a sudden, comes near a .magnetic rock; and its iron bolts and bars are all attracted and drawn out, and the planks get loosened and freely float on the water. Divine grace thus loosens the binding bolts and bars of the soul, and it becomes free. So in this renunciation, auxiliary to devotion, there is no harshness, no dryness, no struggle, nor repression or suppression. The bhakta has not to suppress any single one of his emotions, he only strives to intensify them and direct them to God.
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2.01 - The Two Natures, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Gita related and synthetised works and knowledge. The vision of the World-Purusha intervenes in the eleventh chapter, gives a dynamic turn to this stage of the synthesis and relates it vividly to works and life. Thus again all is brought powerfully back to the original question of Arjuna round which the whole exposition revolves and completes its cycle. Afterwards the Gita proceeds by the differentiation of the Purusha and Prakriti to work out its ideas of the action of the gunas, of the ascension beyond the gunas and of the culmination of desireless works with knowledge where that coalesces with bhakti, - knowledge, works and love made one, - and it rises thence to its great finale, the supreme secret of self-surrender to the Master of Existence.
In this second part of the Gita we come to a more concise and easy manner of statement than we have yet had. In the first six chapters the definitions have not yet been made which give the key to the underlying truth; difficulties are being met and solved; the progress is a little laboured and moves through several involutions and returns; much is implied the bearing of which is not yet clear. Here we seem to get on to clearer ground and to lay hold of a more compact and pointed expression. But because of this very conciseness we have to be careful always
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It must ground the supremacy of bhakti over all other motives and powers of spiritual consciousness and action; it must be a knowledge of the supreme Lord of all creatures to whom alone the soul can offer itself in the perfect self-surrender which is the highest height of all love and devotion. This is what the
266
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The workings of the gunas are only the superficial unstable becomings of reason, mind, sense, ego, life and matter, sattvika bhava rajasas tamasas ca; but this is rather the essential stable original intimate power of the becoming, sva bhava. It is that which determines the primary law of all becoming and of each
Jiva; it constitutes the essence and develops the movement of the nature. It is a principle in each creature that derives from and is immediately related to a transcendent divine Becoming, that of the Ishwara, mad bhavah.. In this relation of the divine bhava to the sva bhava and of the sva bhava to the superficial bhavah., of the divine Nature to the individual self-nature and of the self-nature in its pure and original quality to the phenomenal nature in all its mixed and confused play of qualities, we find the link between that supreme and this lower existence. The degraded powers and values of the inferior Prakriti derive from
272
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Nature, bhavah. (states of mind, affections of desire, movements of passion, the reactions of the senses, the limited and dual play of reason, the turns of the feeling and moral sense), which are sattwic, rajasic and tamasic, as for the working of the three gunas, they are, says the Gita, not themselves the pure action of the supreme spiritual nature, but are derivations from it; "they are verily from me," matta eva, they have no other origin, "but I am not in them, it is they that are in me." Here is indeed a strong and yet subtle distinction. "I am" says the Divine "the essential light, strength, desire, power, intelligence, but these derivations from them I am not in my essence, nor am I in them, yet are they all of them from me and they are all in my being." It is then upon the basis of these statements that we have to view the transition of things from the higher to the lower and again from the lower back to the higher nature.
The first statement offers no difficulty. The strong man in spite of the divine nature of the principle of strength in him falls into subjection to desire and to attachment, stumbles into sin, struggles towards virtue. But that is because he descends in all his derivative action into the grasp of the three gunas and does not govern that action from above, from his essential divine nature. The divine nature of his strength is not affected by these derivations, it remains the same in its essence in spite of every obscuration and every lapse. The Divine is there in that nature and supports him by its strength through the confusions of his lower existence till he is able to recover the light, illumine wholly
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2.01 - The Yoga and Its Objects, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
the divine existence. If this attitude of perfect self-surrender can be even imperfectly established, all necessity of Yogic kriya inevitably ceases. For then God himself in us becomes the sadhaka and the siddha and his divine power works in us, not by our artificial processes, but by a working of Nature which is perfectly informed, all-searching and infallibly efficient. Even the most powerful Rajayogic samyama, the most developed pran.ayama, the most strenuous meditation, the most ecstatic bhakti, the most self-denying action, mighty as they are and efficacious, are comparatively weak in their results when set beside this supreme working. For those are all limited to a certain extent by our capacity, but this is illimitable in potency because it is God's capacity. It is only limited by his will which knows what is best for the world and for each of us in the world and apart from it.
The first process of the yoga is to make the sankalpa of atmasamarpan.a. Put yourself with all your heart and all your strength into God's hands. Make no conditions, ask for nothing, not even for siddhi in the yoga, for nothing at all except that in you and through you his will may be directly performed. To those who demand from him, God gives what they demand, but to those who give themselves and demand nothing, he gives everything that they might otherwise have asked or needed and in addition he gives himself and the spontaneous boons of his love.
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Purusha who merely watches, consents to God's work, holds up the Adhar and enjoys the fruits that God gives. The work itself is done by God as Shakti, by Kali, and is offered up by her as a Yajna to Sri Krishna; you are the Yajamana who sees the sacrifice done, whose presence is necessary to every movement of the sacrifice and who tastes its results. This separation of yourself, this renunciation of the kartr.tva-abhimana (the idea of yourself as the doer) is easier if you know what the Adhar is. Above the buddhi which is the highest function of mind is the higher buddhi, or vijnana, the seat of the satyadharma, truth of knowledge, truth of bhava, truth of action, and above this ideal faculty is the ananda or cosmic bliss in which the divine part of you dwells. It is of this vijnana and this ananda that Christ spoke as the kingdom of God that is within you.
The Yoga and Its Objects
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For he has repeatedly given the a bhaya vacana, the assurance of safety. "Pratijanhi," he says in the Gita, "na me bhaktah. pran.asyati, he who is devoted to Me cannot perish."
The third stage comes out of the second, by full realisation of God, or of itself by the grace of God. Not only will the
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and free from egoism; for these three things are the chief enemies of self-surrender. If you are nirdvandva, you can be nih.spr.ha, but hardly otherwise, for every dvandva creates in the mind by the very nature of the mind some form of ragadves.a, like and dislike, attraction and repulsion, whether they are the lowest dualities that appeal to the mind through the body, hunger and thirst, heat and cold, physical pleasure and pain, or the middle sorts that appeal to it through the feelings and desires, success and failure, victory and defeat, fortune and misfortune, pleasure and displeasure, joy and grief, hate and love, or the highest which appeal to the mind through the discriminating buddhi, virtue and sin, reason and unreason, error and truth. These things can only be put under our feet by complete knowledge, the knowledge that sees God in all things and thus comes to understand the relations of things to each other in his great cosmic purpose, by complete bhakti which accepts all things with joy,
- thus abolishing the dvandvas, - because they come from the
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Such knowledge, such bhakti, such Karma come inevitably as the eventual result of the sankalpa of self-surrender and the practice of it.
But it is ahankara that by making the relation and effect of things on ourselves or on things connected with us the standard of life, makes the dvandvas a chain for our bondage. Ahankara in its action on our life and sadhana will be seen to be of three kinds, rajasic, tamasic and sattwic. Rajas binds by desire and the craving in the nature for occupation and activity, it is always reaching after action and the fruit of action; it is in order that we may be free from the rajasic ahankara that we have the command, "Do not do works from the desire of fruit," ma karma-phala-hetur bhuh., and the comm and to give up our actions to God. Tamas binds by weakness and the craving in the nature for ease and inaction; it is always sinking into idleness, depression, confusion of mind, fear, disappointment, despondency and despair; it is in order that we may get rid of the tamasic
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God by the full light of self-knowledge, jnanadpena bhasvata, dispels all further chance of self-delusion.
The danger of tamogun.a is twofold, first, when the Purusha thinks, identifying himself with the tamas in him, "I am weak, sinful, miserable, ignorant, good-for-nothing, inferior to this man and inferior to that man, adhama, what will God do through me?" - as if God were limited by the temporary
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Orders, theologies, philosophies have failed to save mankind because they have busied themselves with intellectual creeds, dogmas, rites and institutions, with acarasuddhi and darsana, as if these could save mankind, and have neglected the one thing needful, the power and purification of the soul. We must go back to the one thing needful, take up again Christ's gospel of the purity and perfection of mankind, Mahomed's gospel of perfect submission, self-surrender and servitude to God, Chaitanya's gospel of the perfect love and joy of God in man, Ramakrishna's gospel of the unity of all religions and the divinity of God in man, and, gathering all these streams into one mighty river, one purifying and redeeming Ganges, pour it over the death-in-life of a materialistic humanity as bhagirath led down the Ganges and flooded with it the ashes of his fathers, so that they may be a resurrection of the soul in mankind and the Satyayuga for a while return to the world. Nor is this the whole object of the
The Yoga and Its Objects
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2.02 - On Letters, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
There was reading of a letter of condolence from one bharati from Pudukotah on Manmohan's death. The last sentence was: "Let him enjoy a long life in heaven at least."
Sri Aurobindo: He seems to be very much afraid that he might be short-lived even there! (Laughter)
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Secondly, when it is awakened, the psychic being gives the sadhak the true bhakti for God or for the Guru. That devotion is quite different from mental and vital devotion.
In the mind one may have admiration for the intellectual ideas of someone, or one may have mental appreciation for some great intellect. But if it is merely mental, it does not carry matters very far; it is not sufficient by itself. It does not open the whole of the inner being; it only establishes a mental contact. Of course, there is no harm in having that. When K came here he had that mental admiration for what I have written in the Arya. One can get something from that kind of mental contact, but it is not what one can get by being in relation with the psychic being. I do not, for a moment, want to suggest that there was no truth in his bhakti, but there was much mixture in it and even what was mental and vital was very much exaggerated.
When he began the Yoga he had certain capacities. Of course, he was not half as tall as he thought himself to be. But if he had not exaggerated his capacities he would have been, by this time, farther than he is today.
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But the psychic bhakti is not like that. Because the soul is in contact with the Divinity behind, it is capable of true bhakti. The psychic being has what is called ahaituk bhakti, devotion without any motive. It does not make any demands, it makes no reservations in its surrender.
The psychic being knows how to obey the Truth in the right way. It can give itself up fully to God or to the Guru; and because it gives itself up truly it receives also truly.
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2.02 - The Bhakta.s Renunciation results from Love, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
object:2.02 - The bhakta.s Renunciation results from Love
author class:Swami Vivekananda
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THE bhaKTAS RENUNCIATION RESULTS FROM LOVE
We see love everywhere in nature. Whatever in society is good and great and sublime is the working out of that love; whatever in society is very bad, nay diabolical, is also the ill-directed working out of the same emotion of love. It is this same emotion that gives us the pure and holy conjugal love between husb and and wife, as well as the sort of love which goes to satisfy the lowest forms of animal passion. The emotion is the same, but its manifestation is different in different cases. It is the same feeling of love, well or illdirected, that impels one man to do good and to give all he has to the poor, while it makes another man cut the throats of his brethren and take away all their possessions. The former loves others as much as the latter loves himself. The direction of the love is bad in the case of the latter but it is right and proper in the other case. The same fire that cooks a meal for us may bum a child, and it is no fault of the fire if it does so; the difference lies in the way in which it is used.
Therefore, love, the intense longing for associa tion, the strong desire on the part of two to become oneand, it may be after all, of all to become merged in oneis being manifested everywhere in higher or lower forms as the case may be. bhakti-Yoga is the science of higher love; it shows us how to direct it; it shows us I how to control it, how to manage it, how to use it, how to give it a new aim, as it were, and from it obtain the highest and most glorious results, that is, how to make it lead us to spiritual blessedness. bhakti-Yoga does not say, Give up; it only says Love; love the Highest; and everything low naturally falls off from him, the object of whose love is this Highest.
I cannot tell anything about Thee, except that Thou art my love. Thou art beautiful, Oh, Thou art beautiful! Thou art beauty itself. What is after all really required of us in this Yoga is, that our thirst after the beautiful should be directed to God. What is the beauty in the human face, in the sky, in the stars, and in the moon? It is only the partial apprehension of the real all-embracing Divine Beauty. He shining, everything shines. It is through His light that all things shine. Take this high position of bhakti which makes you forget at once all your little personalities. Take yourself away from all the worlds little selfish clingings. Do not look upon humanity as the centre of all your human and higher interests. Stand as a witness, as a student, and observe the phenomena of nature. Have the feeling of personal non-attachment with regard to man, and see how this mighty feeling of love is working itself out in the world.
Sometimes a little friction is produced, but that is only in the course of the struggle to attain the higher real love. Sometimes there is a little fight, or a little fall; but it is all only by the way. Stand aside, and freely let these frictions come.
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The bhakti-Yogi, however, knows the meaning of life's struggles; he understands it. He has passed through a long series of these struggles, and knows what they mean, and earnestly desires to be free from the friction thereof; he wants to avoid the clash and go direct to the centre of all attraction, the great Hari. This is the renunciation of the bhakta: this mighty attraction in the direction of God makes all other attraction vanish for him; this mighty infinite love of God which enters his heart leaves no place for any other love to live there. How can it be otherwise? bhakti fills his heart with the divine waters of the ocean of love, which is God Himself; there is no place there for little loves. That is to say, the bhakta's renunciation is that Vairagya, or non-attachment for all things, that are not God, which results from Anuraga or great attachment to God.
This is the ideal preparation for the attainment of the supreme bhakti. When this renunciation comes, the gate opens for the soul to pass through and reach the lofty regions of Supreme Devotion or Para- bhakti. Then it is that we begin to understand what Para- bhakti is; and the man who has entered into the inner shrine of the Para- bhakti, alone has the right to say that all forms and symbols are useless to him as aids to religious realisation. He alone has attained. that supreme state of love commonly called the brotherhood of man; the rest only talk. He sees no distinctions; the mighty ocean of love has entered Into h Im, and he sees not man in man, but beholds his Beloved everywhere. Through every face shines to him his Hari. The light in the sun or the moon is all His manifestation. Wherever there is beauty or sublimity, to him it is all His. Such bhaktas are still living; the world is never without them. Such, though bitten by a serpent, only say that a messenger came to them from their Beloved. Such men alone have the right to talk of universal brotherhood.
They feel no resentment; their minds never react in the form of hatred or jealousy. The external, the sensuous; has vanished from them for ever. How can they be angry when, through their love, they are always able to see the Reality behind the scenes ?
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2.02 - THE DURGA PUJA FESTIVAL, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
The ladies were seated behind the screen. Keshab, in the course of his talk, said, 'O God, please bless us that we may dive and disappear altogether in the river of bhakti.' I said to Keshab with a smile: 'If you disappear altogether in the river of bhakti, then what will be the fate of those behind the screen? By all means dive into the river, but you had better come back to dry land now and then: Don't disappear in the river altogether.' At these words Keshab and the others burst out laughing.
"Never mind. One can realize God in the world, too, if only one is sincere. 'I' and 'mine'-
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According to the Git, the Jnni himself does not eat; his eating is an offering to the Kundalini. But that does not apply to a bhakta. The present state of my mind is such that I cannot eat any food unless it is first offered to God by a brahmin priest. Formerly my state of mind was such that I would enjoy inhaling the smell of burning corpses, carried by the wind from the other side of the Ganges. It tasted very sweet to me. But nowadays I cannot eat food touched by anybody and everybody. No, I cannot. But once in a while I do. One day I was taken to see a performance of a play at Keshab's house.
They gave me luchi and curries to eat. I didn't know whether the food was handed to me by a washerman or a barber; but I ate quite a little (all laugh). Rkhl had asked me to eat.
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The devotees washed their faces. The Master took his seat on a mat on the north verandah. bhavanath and M. sat beside him. Other devotees were coming in and out of the room.
MASTER (to bhavanath): "The truth is that ordinary men cannot easily have faith. But an Isvarakoti's faith is spontaneous. Prahlada burst into tears while writing the letter 'ka'. It reminded him of Krishna. It is the nature of jivas to doubt. They say yes, no doubt, but-Oneness of akti and Brahman "Hazra can never be persuaded to believe that Brahman and akti, that akti and the Being endowed with akti, are one and the same. When the Reality appears as Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, we call It akti; when It is inactive, we call It Brahman. But really It is one and the same thing-indivisible. Fire naturally brings to mind its power to burn; and the idea of burning naturally brings to mind the idea of fire. It is impossible to think of the one without the other.
"So I prayed to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother! Hazra is trying to upset the views of this place. Either give him right understanding or take him from here.' The next day he carne to me and said, 'Yes, I agree with you.' He said that God exists everywhere as All-pervading Consciousness."
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MASTER (to bhavanath): "Please ask Mahendra of Sinthi to see me. I shall feel better if he reassures me."
bhaVANATH (with a smile): "You have great faith in medicine. But we haven't so much."
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Presently Narendra arrived, and Sri Ramakrishna was exceedingly happy. Narendra saluted the Master and began to talk with bhavanath and others in the room. M. was seated near by. A long mat was spread on the floor. While talking, Narendra lay on it flat on his stomach. The Master looked at him and suddenly went into samdhi. He sat on Narendra's back in an ecstatic mood.
bhavanath sang:
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He went across the cement courtyard toward the Kli temple. On the way he bowed with folded hands to the twelve iva temples. On the left was the temple of Radhakanta. He went there first and bowed before the image. Then he entered the Kli temple and saluted the Mother. Sitting on a carpet, he offered flowers at the Mother's holy feet. He also placed a flower on his own head. While returning from the temple he asked bhavanath to carry the green coconut offered at the temple, and the charanamrita.
Coming back to his room, accompanied by M. and bhavanath, he saluted Hazra, who cried out in dismay: "What are you doing, sir? What is this?" The Master said, "Why should you say it is wrong?" Hazra often argued with the Master, declaring that God dwelt in all beings and that everybody could attain Brahmajnana through sadhana. He had an exaggerated idea of his own spiritual progress.
It was about noon. The gong and the bells announced the worship and offering in the various temples. The brahmins, the Vaishnavas, and the beggars went to the guesthouse to have their midday meal. The devotees of the Master were also to partake of the sacred offerings. He asked them to go to the guesthouse. To Narendra he said: "Won't you take your meal in my room? All right. Narendra and I will eat here." bhavanath, Baburam, M., and the other devotees went to the guesthouse.
After his meal Sri Ramakrishna rested a few minutes. The devotees were on the verandah engaged in light conversation. He soon joined them and was happy in their company. It was about two o'clock. All were, still sitting on the verandah, when suddenly bhavanath appeared in the garb of a brahmachari, dressed in an ochre cloth, kamandalu in hand, his face beaming with smiles.
MASTER (with a smile): "That is his inner feeling. Therefore he has dressed himself as a brahmachari"
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When he had left, bhavanath said to the Master with a laugh, "What great respect you showed the sdhu!"
MASTER (smiling): "You see, he too is Narayana, though full of tamas. This is the way one should please people who have an excess of tamas. Besides, he is a sdhu."
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Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch in his room. Narendra, Baburam, bhavanath, and M. were sitting on the floor. Narendra referred to various religious sects-the Ghoshpara, Panchanami, and others. Sri Ramakrishna described their views and condemned their immoral practices. He said that they could not follow the right course of spiritual discipline, but enjoyed sensuous pleasures in the name of religion.
Danger of Tantrik discipline
MASTER (to Narendra): "You need not listen to these things. The bhairavas and the bhairavis of the Tantrik sect also follow this kind of discipline. While in Benares I was taken to one of their mystic circles. Each bhairava had a bhairavi with him. I was asked to drink the consecrated wine, but I said I couldn't touch wine. They drank it. I thought perhaps they would then practise meditation and japa. But nothing of the sort. They began to dance. I was afraid they might fall into the Ganges: the circle had been made on its bank. It is very honourable for husb and and wife to assume the roles of bhairava and bhairavi.
(To Narendra and the others) "Let me tell you this. I regard woman as my mother; I regard myself as her son. This is a very pure attitude. There is no danger in it. To look on woman as a sister is also not bad. But to assume the attitude of a 'hero', to look on woman as one's mistress, is the most difficult discipline. Trak's father followed this discipline. It is very difficult. In this form of sadhana one cannot always maintain the right attitude.
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Mother, I don't want Narendra, bhavanath, Rkhl, or anybody. I seek Thee alone. What shall I do with man?'
When the Blissful Mother comes to my house, how much of the Chandi I shall hear!
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"Is a mother to be trifled .with? Before becoming a sannyasi Chaitanyadeva worked hard to persuade his mother to let him renounce home. Mother Sachi said that she would kill Keshab bharati. Chaitanyadeva did his utmost to persuade her. He said: 'Mother, I shall not renounce home if you won't let me. But if you compel me to lead a householder's life, I shall die. And, mother, even if I go away as a sannyasi, you will be able to see me whenever you desire. I shall stay near you. I shall see you every now and then.' Only when Chaitanya explained it to her thus did she give her permission. Nrada could not go to the forest to practise austerity as long as his mother was alive. He had to take care of her. After her death he went away to realize God.
"When I went to Vrindvan I felt no desire to return to Calcutta. It was arranged that I should live with Gangama. Everything was settled. My bed was to be on one side and Gangama's on the other. I resolved not to go back to Calcutta. I said to myself, 'How long must I eat a kaivarta's food?' 'No,' said Hriday to me, 'let us go to Calcutta.' He pulled me by one hand and Gangama pulled me by the other. I felt an intense desire to live at Vrindvan. But just then I remembered my mother. That completely changed everything. She was old. I said to myself: 'My devotion to God will take to its wings if I have to worry about my mother. I would rather live with her. Then I shall have peace of mind and be able to meditate on God.'
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MASTER: "A man reads a little of the Git, the bhagavata, or the Vednta and thinks he has understood everything. Once an ant went to a hill of sugar. One grain of sugar filled its stomach, and it was returning home with another grain in its mouth. On the way it said to itself, 'The next time I go, I shall bring home the whole hill.' "(All laugh) --------------------
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2.02 - The Ishavasyopanishad with a commentary in English, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
on the wings of bhakti, but becomes He through God-devoted
Karma, who gives himself up utterly for his family and friends,
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idle talk of a weakling; and again and again in the bhagavadgita
he lays stress on the superiority of works.
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the necessary fulfilment and completion of Jnana; that bhakti,
Karma and Jnana are not three but one and go inseparably
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separate from the Supreme and therefore was not bhagavan at
all but only a great philosopher & devotee, not wise enough to
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of bhagavan himself have combined Jnana and En;kAm km as
one single path to mukti.
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and incontrovertibly stated by Srikrishna in the bhagavadgita.
[n Eh kE<("ZmEp jAt; Et(ykmk
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are two ways of bhakti, one by devotion to the Self as Lord of
all concentrated within you, the other by devotion to the Self
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2.02 - The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Karmayogin who has unified his Yoga of works with the Yoga of knowledge. Not knowledge and works alone are demanded of him now, but bhakti also, devotion to the Divine, love and adoration and the soul's desire of the Highest. This demand, not expressly made until now, had yet been prepared when the
Teacher laid down as the necessary turn of his Yoga the conversion of all works into a sacrifice to the Lord of our being and fixed as its culmination the giving up of all works, not only into our impersonal Self, but through impersonality into the Being from whom all our will and power originate. What was there implied is now brought out and we begin to see more fully the
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when it has firmly the vision of the one self everywhere and in all existences. Equality and vision of unity once perfectly gained, te dvandva-moha-nirmuktah., a supreme bhakti, an all-embracing devotion to the Divine, becomes the whole and the sole law of the being. All other law of conduct merges into that surrender, sarva-dharman parityajya. The soul then becomes firm in this bhakti and in the vow of self-consecration of all its being, knowledge, works; for it has now for its sure base, its absolute foundation of existence and action the perfect, the integral, the unifying knowledge of the all-originating Godhead, te bhajante mam dr.d.ha-vratah..
From the ordinary point of view any return towards bhakti or continuation of the heart's activities after knowledge and impersonality have been gained, might seem to be a relapse. For in bhakti there is always the element, the foundation even of personality, since its motive-power is the love and adoration of the individual soul, the Jiva, turned towards the supreme and universal Being. But from the standpoint of the Gita, where the aim is not inaction and immergence in the eternal Impersonal, but a union with the Purushottama through the integrality of our being, this objection cannot at all intervene. In this Yoga the soul escapes indeed its lower personality by the sense of its impersonal and immutable self-being; but it still acts and all action belongs to the multiple soul in the mutability of Nature.
If we do not bring in as a corrective to an excessive quietism the idea of sacrifice to the Highest, we have to regard this element of action as something not at all ourselves, some remnant of the play of the gunas without any divine reality behind it, a last dissolving form of ego, of I-ness, a continued impetus of the lower
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Krishna later on, "and there is the mutable and personal spiritual being. But there is too another Highest (uttama purus.a) called the supreme self, Paramatman, he who has entered into this whole world and upbears it, the Lord, the imperishable. I am this Purushottama who am beyond the mutable and am greater and higher even than the immutable. He who has knowledge of me as the Purushottama, adores me (has bhakti for me, bhajati), with all-knowledge and in every way of his natural being." And it is this bhakti of an integral knowledge and integral self-giving which the Gita now begins to develop.
For note that it is bhakti with knowledge which the Gita demands from the disciple and it regards all other forms of devotion as good in themselves but still inferior; they may do well by the way, but they are not the thing at which it aims in the soul's culmination. Among those who have put away the sin of the rajasic egoism and are moving towards the Divine, the Gita distinguishes between four kinds of bhaktas. There are those who turn to him as a refuge from sorrow and suffering in the world, arta. There are those who seek him as the giver of good in the world, artharth. There are those who come to him in the desire for knowledge, jijnasu. And lastly there are those who adore him with knowledge, jnan. All are approved by the
Gita, but only on the last does it lay the seal of its complete sanction. All these movements without exception are high and good, udarah. sarva evaite, but the bhakti with knowledge excels them all, visis.yate. We may say that these forms are successively the bhakti of the vital-emotional and affective nature,3 that of the
The later bhakti of ecstatic love is at its roots psychic in nature; it is vital-emotional only in its inferior forms or in some of its more outward manifestations.
The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge
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Therefore according to their nature, as they approach him, he accepts their bhakti and answers to it with the reply of divine love and compassion. These forms are after all a certain kind of
The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge
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He is ever in constant union with him, nityayukta; his whole life and being are an eternal Yoga with the Transcendent than whom there is nothing higher, with the Universal besides whom there is none else and nothing else. On him is concentred all his bhakti, eka bhaktih., not on any partial godhead, rule or cult. This single devotion is his whole law of living and he has gone beyond all creeds of religious belief, rules of conduct, personal aims of life.
He has no griefs to be healed, for he is in possession of the Allblissful. He has no desires to hunger after, for he possesses the highest and the All and is close to the All-Power that brings all fulfilment. He has no doubts or baffled seekings left, for all knowledge streams upon him from the Light in which he lives.
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the God-lover who has the knowledge, jnan bhakta. And this knower, says the Godhead in the Gita, is my self; the others seize only motives and aspects in Nature, but he the very self-being and all-being of the Purushottama with which he is in union.
His is the divine birth in the supreme Nature, integral in being, completed in will, absolute in love, perfected in knowledge. In him the Jiva's cosmic existence is justified because it has exceeded itself and so found its own whole and highest truth of being.
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2.03 - Karmayogin A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
becoming one with Jnana and bhakti. Karma, bhakti, Jnana,
- Action, Love, Knowledge, are the three paths which lead out
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beginning of Jnana, the beginning of bhakti, the beginning of
Karma. so_h\. He is the true & only I.
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Shiva, the Master of utter Samadhi; to the bhakta He appears
in whatever form appeals most to the spiritual emotions of His
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from all that is phenomenal and seeking the One reality in himself, enters into the being of the Eternal. The bhakta envisages
only two realities, God & himself, and by the ecstatic union
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the bhakta is not very different; "Let us leave the things of the
world," he cries, "let us forget all else and think and speak only
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Jnana or bhakti, is a good way, and there is none better; but
the way of the Tyagin who lives among sense-objects and in the
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for to the Karmayogin also bhakti is necessary, and places like
these which are saturated with the bhakti of great saints and
impassioned God-lovers best feed and streng then the impulse
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stage on the road, not the goal. Swami bhaskarananda was
driven into Sannyas by a keen & overmastering disgust of life
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utter bhakti, - but he took as much delight in the Eternal
manifested in phenomena & especially in man as in the pure
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stress on Jnana & bhakti, he will by no means banish Karma
nor relegate it to an inferior place; the most significant portion
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Yogin, be he Jnani, bhakta, or Karmi, must devote whatever
work he may be doing to the Eternal. To the Karmayogin indeed
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becomes the disciple of a great bhakta, however submissively
he may accept his Master's teachings, however largely he may
infuse his Jnana with bhakti, yet eventually it is the way of Jnana
he must take and no other. For that is his swa bhava or nature, his
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the Sudra or Vaisya, the child or woman, to bhakti. If he is born
saint or avatar, he will harmonize all three, but still with one
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love of God, and love gives knowledge, so it is with the bhakta;
the love of God will of itself direct all his works to God and
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is bhakti; and this love & knowledge cannot let him live to
himself but will make him live to Brahman, and that is divine
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right hand, the bhakta the left hand and the Karmayogin walks
in the middle; while on the way each prefers his own choice as
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The Jnani & bhakta shrink from the idea of Karma as a
means of salvation. Unillumined Karma is such a stumbling
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illumined & desireless Karma as anything but a subordinate discipline whose only value is to prepare a man for bhakti or Jnan.
They will not easily concede that karma can be by itself a direct
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the bhakta or Jnani do not bind him because he has attained
the Eternal and by the strength of that attainment becomes free
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that bhakti leads to knowledge and the devotion of one's works
to the Lord; therefore knowledge and works without desire bring
a man to the Eternal and bhakti is only a preliminary means;
or that jnana leads to adoration of the Eternal and devotion
of all one does to him, therefore bhakti and works without
desire alone bring the soul direct to God and jnana is only a
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certain stage while bhakti and Jnana do not cease, this too is
inconsistent with experience. For Janaka and others did works
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Jnana and bhakti also are swallowed up in unfathomable being.
Even of the Unknowable Parabrahman too it cannot be said that
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2.03 - On Medicine, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Disciple: In that case the bhaktas have a very good chance.
Sri Aurobindo: Again you want to make another law! You can't say that the devotees have more chance. All you can say is, "Such and such things happen." God's Grace is without any reason. There are no mental laws governing it. Even in Yoga what His Grace does is much more than what can be done by personal effort.
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2.03 - THE MASTER IN VARIOUS MOODS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"A man may be united with God either through action or through inwardness of thought, but he can know everything through bhakti. Through bhakti one spontaneously experiences kum bhaka. The nerve currents and breathing calm down when the mind is concentrated. Again, the mind is concentrated when the nerve currents and breathing calm down. Then the buddhi, the discriminating power, becomes steady. The man who achieves this state is not himself aware of it.
Efficacy of bhaktiyoga
"One can attain everything through bhakti yoga. I wept before the Mother and prayed, 'O Mother, please tell me, please reveal to me, what the yogis have realized through yoga and the jnanis through discrimination.' And the Mother has revealed everything to me. She reveals everything if the devotee cries to Her with a yearning heart. She has shown me everything that is in the Vedas, the Vednta, the Puranas, and the Tantra."
MANILAL: "And what about hathayoga?"
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"There was a low-caste woman named bhagi Teli in our part of the country. She had many disciples and devotees. Finding that she, a sudra, was being saluted by people, the landlord became jealous and engaged a wicked man to tempt her. He succeeded in corrupting her and all her spiritual practice came to nothing. A fallen sannysi is like that.
"You are leading householders' lives. It is necessary for you to live in the company of holy men. First of all, the company of holy men; then sraddha, faith in God.
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MASTER: "The son could not have been so devoted to God if the father had not been like that. Look at Vijay. His father would become unconscious of the world in divine ecstasy while reading the bhagavata. Vijay can hardly control his emotion: while uttering Hari's name, he sometimes stands up from his seat. The forms of God that Vijay sees nowadays are all real. Speaking about the different aspects of God, formless and with form, Vijay said that God sometimes appears with attributes and sometimes without attri butes. He gave the example of the chameleon, which sometimes turns red, sometimes blue, sometimes green, and sometimes remains colourless.
Praise of guilelessness and purity
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MASTER (to the devotees):"Ah! They are real devotees of God. They visit temples, sing hymns to God, and eat prasad. And the gentleman whom they have made their priest this year is learned in the bhagavata."
MRWRI DEVOTEE: "Who is this 'I' that says, 'O Lord, I am Thy servant?' "
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MASTER: "According to the Git, one becomes afterwards what one thinks of at the time of death. King bharata thought of his deer and became a deer in his next life. Therefore one must practise sdhan in order to realize God. If a man thinks of God day and night, he will have the same thought in the hour of death."
My hides Knowledge
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"According to Nrada the devotee should sing the name and glories of God. The path of karma is not the right one for the Kaliyuga. bhaktiyoga is the right path. Do your duties in the world as long as you need them to reap the fruit of the actions of your past lives.
But you must develop love for God and be passionately attached to Him. The singing of the name and glories of God destroys the effect of past action.
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"More than twenty years ago two young men used to come here from Baranagore. One was named Govinda Pal and the other Gopal Sen. They had been devoted to God since boyhood. The very mention of marriage would frighten them. Gopal used to have bhava samdhi. He would shrink from worldly people, as a mouse from a cat. One day he saw the boys of the Tagore family strolling in the garden. He shut himself in the kuthi lest he should have to talk with them.
"Gopal went into samdhi in the Panchavati. In that state he said to me, touching my feet: 'Let me go. I cannot live in this world any more. You have a long time to wait. Let me go.' I said to him, in an ecstatic mood, 'You must come again.' 'Very well, I will', he said. A few days later Govinda came to me. 'Where is Gopal?' I asked him. He said, 'He has passed away.'
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"Higher than worship is japa, higher than japa is meditation, higher than meditation is bhava, and higher than bhava are maha bhava and prema. Chaitanyadeva had prema, When one attains prema one has the rope to tie God."
Hazra entered the room.
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(To M.) "Hazra said that a man could not be liberated unless he was born in a brahmin body. 'How is that?' I said. 'One attains liberation through bhakti alone. Savari was the daughter of a hunter. She, Ruhidas, and others belonged to the sudra caste. They were liberated through bhakti alone.' 'But still-Hazra insisted.
"He recognized Dhruva's spiritual greatness, but not as much as he recognized Prahlada's. When Ltu said, 'Dhruva had great yearning for God from his boyhood', he kept still.
"I said that there was nothing greater than the bhakti that sought no end and had no selfish motive. Hazra contradicted me. I said to him, 'A wealthy man is annoyed when a petitioner comes to him. "There he comes", he says angrily. "Sit down", he says to him in an indifferent voice, and shows that he is much annoyed. He doesn't allow such a beggar to ride with him in his carriage.'
"But Hazra said that God was not like such wealthy people of the world; did He lack wealth, that He should feel pinched to give it away? Hazra said further: 'When rain falls from the sky, the Ganges and all the big rivers and lakes overflow with water. Small tanks, too, are filled. Likewise, God out of His grace grants wealth and riches as well as knowledge and devotion.'
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"You don't want anything of God but still you love Him. That is pure bhakti, love of God with no motive behind it. Prahlada had it. He sought neither kingdom nor riches; he sought Hari alone."
M: "Hazra is a chatterbox. He won't achieve anything unless he becomes silent."
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Two monks had arrived at the temple garden in the morning. They were devoted to the study of the bhagavad Git, the Vednta, and other scriptures. They entered the Master's room, saluted him, and sat on the mat on the floor. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the small couch. The Master spoke to the sdhus in Hindusthani.
MASTER: "Have you had your meal?"
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MASTER: "But I have the desire for bhakti. That is not bad. Rather, it is good. Sweets are bad, for they produce acidity. But sugar candy is an exception. Isn't that so?"
SDHU: "Yes, sir."
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MASTER (smiling): "God has kept you in the world for the sake of others. There are eight fetters. One cannot get rid of them all. God keeps one or two so that a man may live in the world and teach others. You have organized this theatrical company. How many people are being benefited by seeing your bhakti! If you give up everything, then where will these musicians go?
"God is now doing all these works through you. When they are finish, you will not return to them. The housewife finishes her household duties feeds everyone, including the menservants and maidservants, and then goes to take her bath. She doesn't come back then even if people shout for her."
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"It is also said that God is beyond one and two. He is beyond speech and mind. To go up from the Lila to the Nitya and come down again from the Nitya to the Lila is mature bhakti.
"I love that song of yours about aspiring to reach the Lotus Feet of the Divine Mother. It is enough to know that everything depends on the grace of God. But one must pray to God; it will not do to remain inactive. The lawyer gives all the arguments and finishes his pleading by saying to the judge: 'I have said all I have to say. Now the decision rests with Your Honour.' "
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The music was over Sri Ramakrishna bowed to the Divine Mother and said, " bhagavata- bhakta- bhagavan. My salutations to the jnanis, my salutations to the yogis, my salutations to the bhaktas."
The Master was seated on the semicircular porch with Nilkantha and the other devotees.
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2.03 - The Naturalness of Bhakti-Yoga and its Central Secret, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
object:2.03 - The Naturalness of bhakti-Yoga and its Central Secret
author class:Swami Vivekananda
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THE NATURALNESS OF bhaKTI-YOGA AND ITS CENTRAL SECRET
Those who with constant attention always worship You, and those who worship the Undifferentiated, the Absoluteof these who are the greater Yogis?Arjuna asked of Shri Krishna. The answer was: Those who concentrating their minds on Me worship Me with eternal constancy, and are endowed with the highest faiththey are My best worshippers, they are the greatest Yogis. Those that worship the Absolute, the Indescribable, the Undifferentiated, the Omnipresent, the Unthinkable, the All-comprehending, the Immovable, and the Eternal, by controlling the play of their organs and having the conviction of sameness in regard to all things, they also, being engaged in doing good to all beings, come to Me alone. But to those whose minds have been devoted to the unmanifested Absolute, the difficulty of the struggle along the way is much greater, for it is indeed with great difficulty that the path of the unmanifested Absolute is trodden by any embodied being. Those who, having offered up all their work unto Me, with entire reliance on Me, meditate on Me and worship Me without any attachment to anything else them, I soon lift up from the ocean of ever-recurring births and deaths, as their mind is wholly attached to Me. JnanaYoga and bhakti-Yoga are both referred to here. Both may be said to have been defined in the above passage. JnanaYoga is grand; it is high philosophy; and almost every human being thinks, curiously enough, that he can surely do every thing required of him by philosophy; but it is really very difficult to live truly the life of philosophy. We are often apt to run into great dangers in trying to guide our life by philosophy. This world may be said to be divided between persons of demoniacal nature who think the care-taking of the body to be the be-all and the end-all of existence, and persons of godly nature who realise that the body is simply a means to an end, an instrument intended for the culture of the soul. The devil can and indeed does quote the scriptures for his own purpose ; and thus the way of knowle.dge appears to offer justification to. what the bad man does. as much as it offers inducements to what the good man does.
This is the great danger in Jnana-Yoga. But bhakti-Yoga is natural, sweet, and gentle; the bhakta does not take such high flights as the Jnana-Yogi, and, iherefore, he is. not apt to have such big falls. Until the bondages of the soul pass away, it cannot of course be free, whatever may be the nature of the path that the religious man takes. Here is a passage showing how, in the case of one of the blessed Gopis, the soul-binding chains of both merit and demerit were broken. The intense pleasure in meditating on God took away the binding effects of her good deeds. Then her intense misery of soul in not attaining unto Him washed off all her sinful propensities; and then she became free. (Vishnu-Purna).
In bhakti-Yoga the central secret is, therefore, to know that the various passions, and feelings, and emotions in the human heart are not wrong in themselves; only they have to be carefully controlled and given a higher and higher direction, until they attain the very highest condition of excellence.
The highest direction is that which takes us to God; every other direction is lower. We find that pleasures and pains are very common and oft-recurring feelings in our lives. When a man feels pain, because he has not wealth or some such worldly thing, he is giving a wrong direction to the feeling.
Still, pain has its uses. Let a man feel pain that he has not reached the Highest, that he has not reached God, and that pain will be to his salvation. When you become glad that you have a handful of coins, it is a wrong direction given to the faculty of joy; it should be given a higher direction, it must be made to serve the Highest Ideal. Pleasure in that kind of ideal must surely be our highest joy. This same thing is true of all our other feelings. The bhakta says that not one of them is wrong, he gets hold of them all and points them unfailingly towards God.
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2.03 - The Supreme Divine, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
experience. By that Brahman, a phrase which in the Upanishads is more than once used for the self-existent as opposed to the phenomenal being, the Gita intends, it appears, the immutable self-existence which is the highest self-expression of the Divine and on whose unalterable eternity all the rest, all that moves and evolves, is founded, aks.aram paramam. By adhyatma it means sva bhava, the spiritual way and law of being of the soul in the supreme Nature. Karma, it says, is the name given to the creative impulse and energy, visargah., which looses out things from this first essential self-becoming, this Swa bhava, and effects, creates, works out under its influence the cosmic becoming of existences in Prakriti. By adhibhuta is to be understood all the result of mutable becoming, ks.aro bhavah.. By adhidaiva is intended the
Purusha, the soul in Nature, the subjective being who observes and enjoys as the object of his consciousness all that is this mutable becoming of his essential existence worked out here by
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All this bringing out and continual change from state to state is Karma, is action of Nature, is the energy of Prakriti, the worker, the goddess of processes. It is first a loosing forth of the sva bhava into its creative action, visargah.. The creation is of existences in the becoming, bhuta-karah., and of all that they subjectively or otherwise become, bhava-karah.. All taken together, it is a constant birth of things in Time, ud bhava, of which the creative energy of Karma is the principle. All this mutable becoming emerges by a combination of the powers and energies of Nature, adhibhuta, which constitutes the world and is the object of the soul's consciousness. In it all the soul is the enjoying and observing Deity in Nature; the divine powers of
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"remembering me at his time of end, comes to my bhava," that of the Purushottama, my status of being. He is united with the original being of the Divine and that is the ultimate becoming of the soul, paro bhavah., the last result of Karma in its return upon itself and towards its source. The soul which has followed the play of cosmic evolution that veils here its essential spiritual nature, its original form of becoming, sva bhava, and has passed through all these other ways of becoming of its consciousness which are only its phenomena, tam tam bhavam, returns to that essential nature and, finding through this return its true self and spirit, comes to the original status of being which is from the point of view of the return a highest becoming, mad- bhavam. In a certain sense we may say that it becomes God, since it unites itself with nature of the Divine in a last transformation of its own phenomenal nature and existence.
The Gita here lays a great stress on the thought and state of mind at the time of death, a stress which will with difficulty be understood if we do not recognise what may be called the selfcreative power of the consciousness. What the thought, the inner regard, the faith, sraddha, settles itself upon with a complete and definite insistence, into that our inner being tends to change. This tendency becomes a decisive force when we go to those higher spiritual and self-evolved experiences which are less dependent on external things than is our ordinary psychology, enslaved as that is to outward Nature. There we can see ourselves steadily becoming that on which we keep our minds fixed and to which we constantly aspire. Therefore there any lapse of the thought, any infidelity of the memory means always a retardation of the change or some fall in its process and a going back towards what we were before, - at least so long as we have not substantially and irrevocably fixed our new becoming. When we have done that, when we have made it normal to our experience, the memory of it remains self-existently because that now is the natural form of our consciousness. In the critical moment of passing
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from the mortal plane of living, the importance of our then state of consciousness becomes evident. But it is not a deathbed remembrance at variance with or insufficiently prepared by the whole tenor of our life and our past subjectivity that can have this saving power. The thought of the Gita here is not on a par with the indulgences and facilities of popular religion; it has nothing in common with the crude fancies that make the absolution and last unction of the priest, an edifying "Christian" death after an unedifying profane life or the precaution or accident of a death in sacred Benares or holy Ganges a sufficient machinery of salvation. The divine subjective becoming on which the mind has to be fixed firmly in the moment of the physical death, yam smaran bhavam tyajati ante kalevaram, must have been one into which the soul was at each moment growing inwardly during the physical life, sada tad- bhava- bhavitah.. "Therefore," says the divine Teacher, "at all times remember me and fight; for if thy mind and thy understanding are always fixed on and given up to
Me, mayi arpita-mano-buddhih., to Me thou shalt surely come.
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Yoga, a union with God in bhakti, - the union by love is not here superseded by the featureless unification through knowledge, it remains to the end a part of the supreme force of the
Yoga, - and the life-force entirely drawn up and set between the brows in the seat of mystic vision. All the doors of the sense are closed, the mind is shut in into the heart, the life-force taken up out of its diffused movement into the head, the intelligence concentrated in the utterance of the sacred syllable OM and its conceptive thought in the remembrance of the supreme
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self-existent Godhead who is the Master of works and the Friend of mankind and of all beings. To know him so and so to seek him does not bind to rebirth or to the chain of Karma; the soul can satisfy its desire to escape permanently from the transient and painful condition of our mortal being. And the Gita here, in order to make more precise to the mind this circling round of births and the escape from it, adopts the ancient theory of the cosmic cycles which became a fixed part of Indian cosmological notions. There is an eternal cycle of alternating periods of cosmic manifestation and non-manifestation, each period called respectively a day and a night of the creator Brahma, each of equal length in Time, the long aeon of his working which endures for a thousand ages, the long aeon of his sleep of another thousand silent ages. At the coming of the Day all manifestations are born into being out of the unmanifest, at the coming of the Night all vanish or are dissolved into it. Thus all these existences alternate helplessly in the cycle of becoming and non-becoming; they come into the becoming again and again, bhutva bhutva, and they go back constantly into the unmanifest. But this unmanifest is not the original divinity of the Being; there is another status of his existence, bhavo 'nyo, a supracosmic unmanifest beyond this cosmic non-manifestation, which is eternally self-seated, is not an opposite of this cosmic status of manifestation but far above and unlike it, changeless, eternal, not forced to perish with the perishing of all these existences. "He is called the unmanifest immutable, him they speak of as the supreme soul and status, and those who attain to him return not; that is my supreme place of being, paramam dhama." For the soul attaining to it has escaped out of the cycle of cosmic manifestation and non-manifestation.
Whether we entertain or we dismiss this cosmological notion, - which depends on the value we are inclined to assign to the knowledge of "the knowers of day and night," - the important thing is the turn the Gita gives to it. One might easily imagine that this eternally unmanifested Being whose status seems to have nothing to do with the manifestation or the non-manifestation, must be the ever undefined and indefinable
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that we have become in the manifestation, not to carry up to it our whole inner consciousness in a combined concentration of the mind's knowledge, the heart's love, the Yogic will, the vital life-force. Especially, bhakti seems inapplicable to the Absolute who is void of every relation, avyavaharya. "But" insists the
Gita, - although this condition is supracosmic and although it is eternally unmanifest, - still "that supreme Purusha has to be won by a bhakti which turns to him alone in whom all beings exist and by whom all this world has been extended in space." In other words, the supreme Purusha is not an entirely relationless
Absolute aloof from our illusions, but he is the Seer, Creator and Ruler of the worlds, kavim anusasitaram, dhataram, and it is by knowing and by loving Him as the One and the All, vasudevah. sarvam iti, that we ought by a union with him of our whole conscious being in all things, all energies, all actions to seek the supreme consummation, the perfect perfection, the absolute release.
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2.04 - ADVICE TO ISHAN, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"You see, you should keep far away from woman; then you may realize God. It is extremely harmful to have much to do with women who have bad motives, or to eat food from their hands. They rob a man of his spirituality. Only by being extremely careful about woman can one preserve one's love of God. One day bhavanth, Rkhl, and some other youngsters had cooked their own meal in the temple garden. They were sitting at their meal when a Baul arrived, sat down with them, and said he wanted to eat with them. I said that there was not enough food; if anything was left it would be kept for him. He became angry and left. On the Vijaya day a man allows anyone and everyone to feed him with his own hand. It is not good. But one can eat food from the hand of a devotee who is pure in heart.
"You must be extremely careful about women. Women speak of the attitude of Gopala!
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"Look at Lala Babu. He had so much wealth. Could he have renounced it all so suddenly without the good tendencies of his previous births? And Rani bhavani. So much knowledge and devotion in a woman!
"In his last birth a man is endowed with sattva. His mind is directed to God. He longs for God. He withdraws his mind from worldly things.
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MASTER: "The one essential thing is bhakti, loving devotion to God. Do the Theosophists seek bhakti? They are good if they do. If Theosophy makes the realization of God the goal of life, then it is good. One cannot seek God if one constantly busies oneself with the mahatmas and the lunar, solar, and stellar planes. A man should practise sdhan
and pray to God with a longing heart for love of His Lotus Feet. He should direct his mind to God alone, withdrawing it from the various objects of the world."
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"Therefore a man should act in such a way that he may have bhakti for the Lotus Feet of God and love God as his very own. You see this world around you. It exists for you only for a couple of days. There is nothing to it." PUNDIT (smiling): "Revered sir, I feel a spirit of total renunciation when I am here. I feel like going away, giving up the world."
MASTER: "No, no! Why should you give up? Give up mentally. Live unattached in the world.
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Reason, mere intellectual knowledge, is like a man who can go only as far as the outer court of the house. But bhakti is like a woman who goes into the inner court.
Different attitudes toward God
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"When the Kundalini is awakened, one attains bhava, bhakti, prema, and so on. This is the path of devotion.
Path of karma
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"You are no doubt in the world. What if you are? You must urrender the fruit of your action to God. You must not seek any result for yourself. But mark one thing. The desire for bhakti cannot be called a desire. You may desire bhakti and pray for it. Practise the tamas of bhakti and force your demand upon the Divine Mother.
This bitterly contested suit between the Mother and Her son-What sport it is! says Ramprasad. I shall not cease tormenting Thee
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2.04 - Agni, the Illumined Will, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The solution of the problem depends on right realisation, and right realisation starts from the right illuminative Word, expression of the inspired Thought which is sent to the seer out of the Vast. Therefore the Rishi asks farther, "What word is uttered to Agni?" What word of affirmation, what word of realisation? Two conditions have to be satisfied. The Word must be accepted by other divine Powers, that is, it must bring out some potentiality in the nature or bring into it some light of realisation by which the divine Workers may be induced to manifest in the superficial consciousness of humanity and embrace openly their respective functions. And it must be illuminative of the double nature of Agni, this Lord of the lustrous flame. bhama means both a light of knowledge and a flame of action. Agni is a Light as well as a Force.
The Word arrives. Yo martyes.u amr.to r.tava. Agni is, preeminently, the Immortal in mortals. It is this Agni by whom the other bright sons of Infinity are able to work out the manifestation and self-extension of the Divine (devavti, devatati) which is at once aim and process of the cosmic and of the human sacrifice. For he is the divine Will which in all things is always present, is always destroying and constructing, always building and perfecting, supporting always the complex progression of the universe. It is this which persists through all death and change. It is eternally and inalienably possessed of the Truth. In the last obscuration of Nature, in the lowest unintelligence of
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2.04 - The Forms of Love-Manifestation, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
It is natural for the hunlan heart to do so, because all such teachers preach the Lord. At bottom, reverence is a growth out of love; we can none of us revere him whom we do not love. Then comes Pritipleasure in God. What an immense pleasure men take in the objects of the senses! They go anywhere, run through any danger, to get the thing which they love, the thing which their senses like. What is wanted of the bhakta is this very kind of intense love which has, however, to be directed to God. Then there is the sweetest of pains, Viraha, the intense misery due to the absence of the beloved. When a man feels intense misery because he has not attained to God, has not known that which is the only thing worthy to be known, and becomes in consequence very dissatisfied and almost mad then there is Viraha ; and this state of the mind makes him feel disturbed in the presence of anything other than the beloved (@kritiyicikTsa). In earthly love we see how often this Viraha comes. Again, when men are really and intensely in love with women, or women with men, they feel a kind of natural annoyance in the presence of all those whom they do not love. Exactly the same state of impatience, in regard to things that are not loved, comes to the mind when Para- bhakti holds sway over it; even to talk about things other than God becomes distasteful then.
Think of Him, think of Him alone, and give up all other vain words (ANya vacae ivmu< cw). Those who talk of Him alone, the bhakta finds to be friendly to him; while those who talk of anything else appear to him to be unfriendly. A still higher stage of love is reached when life itself is maintained for the sake of the one Ideal of Love, when life itself is considered beautiful and worth living only on account of that Love (tdwRa[s bhakti when he has become blessed, when he has attained God, when he has touched the feet of God, as it were. Then his whole nature is purified and completely changed. All his purpose in life then becomes fulfilled. Yet many such bhaktas live on just to worship Him. That is the bliss, the only pleasure in life, which they will not give up. Oh king, such is the blessed quality of Hari that even those, who have become satisfied with everything, all the knots of whose hearts have been cut asunder, even they love the Lord for loves sake the Lord Whom all the gods worship, all the lovers of liberation, and all the knowers of the Brahman (Nri. Tap. Up.) Such is the power of love. When a man has forgotten himself altogether and does not feel that ahything belongs to him, then he acquires the state of Tadiyata; everything is sacred to him, because it belongs to the Beloved. Even in regard to earthly love, the lover thinks that everything belonging to his beloved is sacred and so dear to him. He loves even a piece of the cloth belonging to the darling of his heart. In the same way, when a person loves the Lord, the whole universe becomes dear to him, because it is all His.
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2.04 - The Secret of Secrets, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
since his works are that Being's, he has to give up all his actions to the Godhead in him and the world by whom they are done in the divine mystery of Nature. This is the double condition of the divine birth of the soul, of its release from the mortality of the ego and the body into the spiritual and eternal, - knowledge first of one's timeless immutable self and union through it with the timeless Godhead, but knowledge too of that which lives behind the riddle of cosmos, the Godhead in all existences and their workings. Thus only can we aspire through the offering of all our nature and being to a living union with the One who has become in Time and Space all that is. Here is the place of bhakti in the scheme of the Yoga of an integral self-liberation.
It is an adoration and aspiration towards that which is greater than imperishable self or changing Nature. All knowledge then becomes an adoration and aspiration, but all works too become an adoration and aspiration. Works of nature and freedom of soul are unified in this adoration and become one self-uplifting to the one Godhead. The final release, a passing away from the lower nature to the source of the higher spiritual becoming, is not an extinction of the soul, - only its form of ego becomes extinct,
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One has to grow into it, one has to become it, - that is the only way to verify it. It is only by an exceeding of the lower self that one can become the real divine self and live the truth of our spiritual existence. All the apparent truths one can oppose to it are appearances of the lower Nature. The release from the evil and the defect of the lower Nature, asu bham, can only come by accepting a higher knowledge in which all this apparent evil becomes convinced of ultimate unreality, is shown to be a creation of our darkness. But to grow thus into the freedom of the divine Nature one must accept and believe in the Godhead secret within our present limited nature. For the reason why the practice of this Yoga becomes possible and easy is that in doing it we give up the whole working of all that we naturally are into the hands of that inner divine Purusha. The Godhead works out the divine birth in us progressively, simply, infallibly, by taking up our being into his and by filling it with his own knowledge and power, jnanadpena bhasvata; he lays hands on our obscure ignorant nature and transforms it into his own light and wideness. What with entire faith and without egoism we believe in and impelled by him will to be, the God within will surely accomplish. But the egoistic mind and life we now and apparently are, must first surrender itself for transmutation into the hands of that inmost secret Divinity within us.
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2.05 - On Poetry, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Disciple: In his autobiography he speaks of an experience: One day on the terrace of the Jorasanko House he felt a sudden outburst of joy and the whole of Nature seemed to him bathed in Ananda. The poem "Nirjharer Swapna bhanga" is the outcome of that experience.
Sri Aurobindo: That is also a spiritual experience. What does he say in that poem?
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Disciple: In poems of bhakti one can feel devotion.
Sri Aurobindo: It is feeling only. It does not create for you a living and moving world. Feeling is not enough to be creative.
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2.05 - Universal Love and how it leads to Self-Surrender, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
The bhakta wishes to realise that one generalised abstract Person in loving whom he loves the whole universe. The Yogi wishes to have possession of that one generalised form of power, by controlling which he controls this whole universe. The Indian mind, throughout its history, has been directed to this kind of singular search after the universal in everythingin science, in psychology, in love, in philosophy. So the conclusion to which the bhakta comes is, that, if you go on merely loving one person after another, you may go on loving them so for an infinite length of time, without being in the least able to love the world as a whole.
When, at last, the central idea is, however, arrived at, that the sum total of all love is God, that the sum total of the aspirations of all the souls in the universe, whether they be free, or bound, or struggling towards liberation, is God, then alone it becomes possible for anyone to put forth universal love. God is the Samashti, and this visible universe is God differentiated and made manifest. If we love this sum total, we love everything. Loving the world and doing it good will all come easily then; we have to obtain this power only by loving God first; otherwise it is no joke to do good to the world. Everything is His and He is my Lover; I love Him, says the bhakta. In this way everything becomes sacred to the bhakta, because all things are His. All are His children,
His body, His manifestation. How then may we hurt any one? How then may we not love anyone? With the love of God will come, as a sure effect, the love of everyone in the universe. The nearer we approach God, the more do we begin to see that all things are in Him. When the soul succeeds in appropriating the bliss of this supreme love, it also begins to see Him in everything. Our heart will thus become an eternal fountain of love. And when we reach even higher states of this love, all the little differences between the things of the world are entirely lost; man is seen no more as man, but only as God; the animal is seen no more as animal, but as God; even the tiger is no more a tiger but manifestation of God. Thus in this intense state of bhakti, worship is offered to every one, to every life, and to every being.
Knowing that Hari, the Lord, is in every being, the wise have thus to manifest unswerving love towards all beings.
As a result of this kind of intense, all-absorbing love, comes the feeling of perfect self-surrender, the conviction that nothing that happens is against us(Aprtikulya). Thcn the loving soul is able to say, if pain comes, Welcome pain. If misery comes, it will say, Welcome misery, you are also from the Beloved. If a serpent comes, it will say, Welcome serpent. If death comes, such a bhakta will wekome it with a smile. Blessed am I that they all come to me; they are all welcome. The bhakta in this state of perfect resignation, arising out of intense love to God and to all that are His, ceases to distinguish between pleasure and pain in so far as they affect him. He does not know what it is to complain of pain or misery; and this kind of uncomplaining resignation to the will of God, who is all love, is indeed a worthier acquisition than all the glory of grand and heroic performances.
To the vast majority of mankind, the body is everything; the body is all the universe to them; bodily enjoyment is their all in all. This demon of the worship of the body and of the things of the body has entered into us all. We may indulge in tall talk, and take very high flights, but we are like vultures all the same; our mind is directed to the piece of carrion down below. Why should our body be saved, say, from the tiger? Why may we not give it over to the tiger?
The tiger will thereby be pleased, and that is not altogether so very far from self-sacrifice and worship. Can you reach the realisation of such an idea in which all sense of self is completely lost? It is a very dizzy height on the pinnacle of the religion of love, and few in this world have ever climbed up to it; but until a man reaches that highest point of everready and ever-willing self-sacrifice, he cannot become a perfect bhakta. We may all manage to maintain our bodies more or less satisfactorily and for longer or shorter intervals of time. Nevertheless, our bodies have to go; there is no permanence about them. Blessed are they whose bodies get destroyed in the service of others. Wealth, and even life itself, the sage always holds ready for the service of others.
In this world, there being one thing certain, viz. death, it is far better that this body dies in a good cause than in a bad one. We may drag our life on for fifty years or a hundred years; but after that, what is it that happens? Everything that is the result of combination must get dissolved and die.
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Jesus and Buddha. and Mohammed are all dead; all the great Prophets and Teachers of the world are dead. In this evanescent world, where everything is falling to pieces, we have to make the highest use of what time we have, says the bhakta; and really the highest use of life is to hold it at the service of all beings. It is the horrible body-idea that breeds all the selfishness in the world, just this one delusion that we are wholly the body we own, and that we must by all possible means try our very best to preserve and to please it. If you know that you are positively other than your body, you have then none to fight with or struggle against; you are dead to all ideas of selfishness. So the bhakta declares that we have to hold ourselves as if we are altogether dead to all the things of the world; and that is indeed self-surrender. Let things come as they may. This is the meaning of Thy will be done; not going about fighting and struggling and thinking all the while that God wills all our own weaknesses and worldly ambitions. It may be that good comes even out of our selfish struggles; that is, however, Gods look-out. The perfected bhaktas idea must be never to will and work for himself.
Lord, they build high temples in Your name; they make large gifts in Your name; I am poor; I have nothing; so I take this body of mine and place it at Your feet. Do not give me up, O Lord. Such is the prayer proceeding out of the depths of the bhaktas heart. To him who has experienced it, this eternal sacrifice of the self unto the Beloved Lord is higher by far than all wealth and power, than even all soaring thoughts of renown and enjoyment. The peace of the bhaktas calm resignation is a peace that passeth all understanding, and is of incomparable yalue. His Aprtikulya is a state of the mind in which it has no interests, and naturally knows nothing that is opposed to it. In this state of sublime resignation everything in the shape of attachment goes away completely, except that one all-absorbing love to Him in whom all things live and move and have their being. This attachment of love to God is indeed one that does not bind the soul but effectively breaks all its bondages.
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2.05 - VISIT TO THE SINTHI BRAMO SAMAJ, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
O Thou who stealest Thy bhaktas' hearts,
Drown me deep in the Sea of Thy love!
--
Perhaps they cry out in a delirium, 'Turmeric powder! Seasoning! Bay-leaf!' The singing parrot, when at ease, repeats the holy names of Radha and Krishna, but when it is seized by a cat it utters its own natural sound; it squawks, 'Kaa! Kaa!' It is said in the Git that whatever one thinks in the hour of death, one becomes in the after-life. King bharata gave up his body exclaiming, 'Deer! Deer!' and was born as a deer in his next life. But if a man dies thinking of God, then he attains God, and he does not have to come back to the life of this world."
A BRAMO DEVOTEE: "Sir, suppose a man has thought of God at other times during his life, but at the time of his death forgets Him. Would he, on that account, come back to this world of sorrow and suffering? Why should it be so? He certainly thought of God some time during his life."
--
"There is another path, the path of knowledge, which is very difficult. You members of the Brahmo Samaj are not jnanis. You are bhaktas. The Jnni believes that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory as a dream. To him, 'I' and 'you' are illusory as a dream.
"God is our Inner Controller. Pray to Him with a pure and guileless heart. He will explain everything to you. Give up egotism and take refuge in Him. You will realize everything."
--
MASTER: "God incarnates Himself for the bhakta and not for the Jnni."
PUNDIT: "'I incarnate Myself in every age for the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of dharma.' God becomes man, first, for the joy of the bhakta, and secondly, for the destruction of the wicked. The Jnni has no desire."
MASTER (smiling): "But I have not got rid of all desires. I have the desire for love of God." The pundit's son entered the room. He saluted the Master and took a seat.
MASTER (to the pundit): "Well, what is bhava and what is bhakti?"
PUNDIT: "Meditation on God mellows the mind. This mellowness is called bhava. It is like the thawing of ice when the sun rises."
MASTER: "Well, what is prema?"
--
MASTER: "Some people develop bhakti and others do not; how do you explain that, sir?"
PUNDIT: "There is no partiality in God. He is the Wish-fulfilling Tree. Whatever a man asks of God he gets. But he must go near the Tree to ask the boon."
--
MASTER: "One can understand the bhagavata well if one has already studied the Nyaya, the Vednta , and the other systems of philosophy. Isn't that so?"
PUNDIT'S SON: "Yes, sir. It is very necessary to study the Samkhya philosophy."
--
Sri Ramakrishna was resting. The Mrwri devotees had been singing bhajan on the roof. They were celebrating the Krishna festival. Arrangements had been made for worship and food offering. At the host's request the Master went to see the image. He bowed down before the Deity.
Sri Ramakrishna was profoundly moved as he stood before the image. With folded hands he said: "O Govinda, Thou art my soul! Thou art my life! Victory to Govinda! Hallowed be the name of Govinda! Thou art the Embodiment of Satchidananda! Oh, Krishna! Ah, Krishna! Krishna is knowledge. Krishna is mind. Krishna is life. Krishna is soul. Krishna is body. Krishna is caste. Krishna is family. O Govinda, my life and soul!"
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2.06 - On Beauty, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Disciple: I want to know what connection this power of beauty has with Vaishnavism. bhakti begins with emotion. Is there a connection between bhakti and this power of beauty?
Sri Aurobindo: How do you mean? I don't understand your question. bhakti has not only the sense of beauty in it, there are many other elements besides.
Disciple: There is the emotional element, but where or when does the element of beauty enter at the beginning or at the end?
--
Sri Aurobindo: In the path of devotion, the bhakti Marga in India, God is regarded as the All-beautiful. In the case of other paths it is not so.
Disciple: There is an idea that for art limitation is necessary. There can be no art if there is no restraint and every great artist imposes his own limitations.
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2.06 - The Higher Knowledge and the Higher Love are one to the true Lover, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
The Upanishads distinguish between a higher knowledge and a lower knowledge; and to the bhakta there is really no dfference between this higher knowledge and his higher love (Par- bhakti). The Mundaka Upanishad says: The knowers of Brahman declare that there are two kinds of knowledge worthy to be known. namely, the Higher (Par) and the Lower (Apar). Of these the Lower (knowledge) consists of the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Smaveda, the Atharvaveda, the Shiksh (or the science dealing with pronunciation and accent), the Kalpa (or the sacrificial liturgy), Grammar, the Nirukta (or the science dealing with etymology and the meaning of words), Prosody, and Astronomy; and the Higher (knowledge) is that by which that unchangeable is known. The higher knowledge is thus clearly shown to be the knowledge of Brahman: and the Devi-Bhgavata gives us the following definition of the higher love (Par- bhakti):As oil poured from one vessel to another falls in an unbroken line, so, when the mind in an unbroken stream thinks of the Lord, we have what is called Para- bhakti or supreme love. This kind of undisturbed and ever steady direction of the mind and the heart to the Lord with an inseparable attactment is indeed the highest manifestation of mans love to God. All other forms of bhakti are only preparatory to the attainment of this highest form thereof, viz. the Par- bhakti which is also known as the love that comes after attachment (Rgnug). When this supreme love once comes into the heart of man, his mind will continuously think of God and remember nothing else.
He will give no room in himself to thoughts other than those of God, and his soul will be unconquerably pure, and will alone break all the bonds of mind and matter and become serenely free. He alone can worship the Lord in his own heart; to him, forms, symbols, books, and doctrines are all unnecessary and are incapable of proving serviceable in any way. It is not easy to love the Lord thus. Ordinarily human love is seen to flourish only in places where it is returned; where love is not returned for love, cold indifference is the natural result. There are, however, rare instances in which we may notice love exhibiting itself even where there is no return of love. We may compare this kind of love, for purposes of illustration, to the love of the moth for the fire; the insect loves the fire, falls into it and dies. It is indeed in the nature of this insect to love so. To love, because it is the nature of love to love, is undeniably the highest and the most unselfish manifestation of love that may be seen in the world. Such love working itself out on the plane of spirituality necessarily leads to the attainment of Para bhakti.
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2.06 - WITH VARIOUS DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "Sri Radha used to experience Maha bhava. If any of her companions wanted to touch her while she was in that state, another of them would say: 'Please do not touch that body, the playground of Sri Krishna. Krishna is now sporting in her body.' It is not possible to experience bhava or maha bhava without the realization of God. When a fish comes up from a great depth, you see a movement on the surface of the water; and if it is a big one there is much splashing about. That is why a devotee 'laughs and weeps and dances and sings in the ecstasy of God'.
"One cannot remain in bhava very long. People take a man to be crazy if he sits before a mirror and looks at his face all the time."
Discipline for God-vision
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"There is another big man: Captain. Though a man of the world, he is a great lover of God. (To Mahima) Talk to him some time. He knows the Vedas, the Vednta, the bhagavata, the Git, the Adhytma Rmyana, and other scriptures by heart. You will find that out when you talk to him.
"He has great piety. Once I was going along a street in Baranagore and he held an umbrella over my head. He invites me to his house and shows me great attention. He fans me, massages my feet, and feeds me with various dishes. Once at his house I went into samdhi in the toilet; and he took care of me there though he is so particular about his orthodox habits. He didn't show any abhorrence for the place.
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MASTER: 'The jnanis regard everything as illusory, like a dream; but the bhaktas accept all the states. The milk flows only in dribblets from the Jnni. (All laugh.) There are some cows that pick and choose their fodder; hence their milk flows only in dribblets. But cows that don't discriminate so much, and eat whatever they get, give milk in torrents. A superior devotee of God accepts both the Absolute and the Relative; therefore he is able to enjoy the Divine even when his mind comes down from the Absolute. Such a devotee is like the cows that give milk in torrents." (All laugh.) MAHIMA: "But the milk of a cow that eats without discrimination smells a little."
(Laughter.)
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VIJAY: 'There is a nice story about that in the bhaktamala."
MASTER: "Tell it to us."
--
"A man who used to give recitals of the Chandi and the bhagavata once said, 'A broomstick is itself unclean, but it cleans dirty places.' "
Mahimacharan studied the Vednta. His aim was to attain Brahmajnana. He followed the path of knowledge and was always reasoning.
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"The bhaktas retain 'I-consciousness'; the jnanis do not. Nangta used to teach how to establish oneself in the true Self, saying, 'Merge the mind in the buddhi and the buddhi in the tman; then you will be established in your true Self."
"But the 'I' persists. It cannot be got rid of. Imagine a limitless expanse of water: above and below, before and behind, right and left, everywhere there is water. In that water is placed a jar filled with water. There is water inside the jar and water outside, but the jar is still there. The 'I' is the jar.
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"Once, while going to Kamarpukur, I was overtaken by a storm. I was in the middle of a big meadow. The place was haunted by robbers. I began to repeat the names of all the deities: Rma, Krishna, and bhagavati. I also repeated the name of Hanuman. I chanted the names of them all. What does that mean? Let me tell you. While the servant is counting out the money to purchase supplies, he says, 'These pennies are for potatoes these for eggplants, these for fish.' He counts the money separately, but after the list is completed, he puts the coins together.
"When one develops love of God, one likes to talk only of God. If you love a person, you love to talk and hear about him. A worldly person's mouth waters while he talks about his son. If someone praises his son, he will at once say to the boy, 'Go and get some water for your uncle to wash his feet.
--
"And about the chatak bird. He will not drink anything but rain-water. And about jnanayoga and bhaktiyoga."
MASTER: "What did I say about them?"
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2.06 - Works Devotion and Knowledge, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
of knowledge they come to the adoration of the Purushottama, jnana-yajnena yajanto mam upasate. This is a comprehension filled with bhakti, because it is integral in its instruments, integral in its objective. It is not a pursuit of the Supreme merely as an abstract unity or an indeterminable Absolute. It is a heartfelt seeking and seizing of the Supreme and the Universal, a pursuit of the Infinite in his infinity and of the Infinite in all that is finite, a vision and embracing of the One in his oneness and of the One in all his several principles, his innumerable visages, forces, forms, here, there, everywhere, timelessly and in time, multiply, multitudinously, in endless aspects of his Godhead, in beings without number, all his million universal faces fronting us in the world and its creatures, ekatvena pr.thaktvena bahudha visvatomukham. This knowledge becomes easily an adoration, a large devotion, a vast self-giving, an integral self-offering because it is the knowledge of a Spirit, the contact of a Being, the embrace of a supreme and universal Soul which claims all that we are even as it lavishes on us when we approach it all the treasures of its endless delight of existence.3
The way of works too turns into an adoration and a devotion of self-giving because it is an entire sacrifice of all our will and its activities to the one Purushottama. The outward Vedic rite is a powerful symbol, effective for a slighter though still a heavenward purpose; but the real sacrifice is that inner oblation in which the Divine All becomes himself the ritual action, the sacrifice and every single circumstance of the sacrifice. All the working and forms of that inner rite are the self-ordinance and self-expression of his power in us mounting by our aspiration towards the source of its energies. The Divine Inhabitant becomes himself the flame and the offering, because the flame is the Godward will and that will is God himself within us. And the offering too is form and force of the constituent Godhead in our nature and being; all that has been received from him is given up to the service and the worship of its own Reality,
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2.07 - BANKIM CHANDRA, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
The singing and dancing over, the Master touched the ground with his forehead, saying, ' bhagavata - bhakta - bhagavan! Salutations to the jnanis, yogis, and bhaktas!
Salutations to all!" He sat down again and all sat around him.
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2.07 - The Mother Relations with Others, #Words Of The Mother I, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Only, when this force or this presence, which is the same, passes through your individual consciousness, it puts on a form, an appearance which differs according to your temperament, your aspiration, your need, the particular turn of your being. Your individual consciousness is like a filter, a pointer, if I may say so; it makes a choice and fixes one possibility out of the infinity of divine possibilities. In reality, the Divine gives to each individual exactly what he expects of Him. If you believe that the Divine is far away and cruel, He will be far away and cruel, because it will be necessary for your ultimate good that you feel the wrath of God; He will be Kali for the worshippers of Kali and Beatitude for the bhakta. And He will be the All-knowledge of the seeker of Knowledge, the transcendent Impersonal of the illusionist; He will be atheist with the atheist and the love of the lover. He will be brotherly and close, a friend always faithful, always ready to succour, for those who feel Him as the inner guide of each movement, at every moment. And if you believe that He can wipe away everything, He will wipe away all your faults, all your errors, tirelessly, and at every moment you can feel His infinite Grace.
The Divine is indeed what you expect of Him in your deepest aspiration.
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2.07 - The Supreme Word of the Gita, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
tification of their being and their nature. From this need arise the religions of love and works, whose strength is that they satisfy and lead Godwards the most active and developed powers of our humanity, - for only by starting from these can knowledge be effective. Even Buddhism with its austere and uncompromising negation both of subjective self and objective things had still to found itself initially on a divine discipline of works and to admit as a substitute for bhakti the spiritualised emotionalism of a universal love and compassion, since so only could it become an effective way for mankind, a truly liberating religion. Even illusionist Mayavada with its ultralogical intolerance of action and the creations of mentality had to allow a provisional and practical reality to man and the universe and to God in the world in order to have a first foothold and a feasible starting-point; it had to affirm what it denied in order to give some reality to man's bondage and to his effort for liberation.
But the weakness of the kinetic and the emotional religions is that they are too much absorbed in some divine Personality and in the divine values of the finite. And, even when they have a conception of the infinite Godhead, they do not give us the full satisfaction of knowledge because they do not follow it out into its most ultimate and supernal tendencies. These religions fall short of a complete absorption in the Eternal and the perfect union by identity, - and yet to that identity in some other way, if not in the abstractive, since there all oneness has its basis, the spirit that is in man must one day arrive. On the other hand, the weakness of a contemplative quietistic spirituality is that it arrives at this result by a too absolute abstraction and in the end it turns into a nothing or a fiction the human soul whose aspiration was yet all the time the whole sense of this attempt at union; for without the soul and its aspiration liberation and union could have no meaning. The little that this way of thinking recognises of his other powers of existence, it relegates to an inferior preliminary action which never arrives at any full or satisfying realisation in the Eternal and Infinite. Yet these things too which it restricts unduly, the potent will, the strong yearning of love, the positive light and all-embracing intuition
--
discover his spiritual unity with all creatures, to see all in the self and the self in all beings, even to see all things and creatures as himself, atmaupamyena sarvatra, and accordingly think, feel and act in all his mind, will and living. This Godhead is the origin of all that is here or elsewhere and by his Nature he has become all these innumerable existences, abhut sarvan.i bhutani; therefore man has to see and adore the One in all things animate and inanimate, to worship the manifestation in sun and star and flower, in man and every living creature, in the forms and forces, qualities and powers of Nature, vasudevah. sarvam iti. He has to make himself by divine vision and divine sympathy and finally by a strong inner identity one universality with the universe. A passive relationless identity excludes love and action, but this larger and richer oneness fulfils itself by works and by a pure emotion: it becomes the source and continent and substance and motive and divine purpose of all our acts and feelings. Kasmai devaya havis.a vidhema, to what Godhead shall we give all our life and activities as an offering? This is that Godhead, this the Lord who claims our sacrifice. A passive relationless identity excludes the joy of adoration and devotion; but bhakti is the very soul and heart and summit of this richer, completer, more intimate union.
This Godhead is the fulfilment of all relations, father, mother, lover, friend and refuge of the soul of every creature. He is the one supreme and universal Deva, Atman, Purusha, Brahman,
--
worship and highest knowledge of the Eternal are the knowledge and the adoration of him as the supreme and divine Origin of all that is in existence and the mighty Lord of the world and its peoples of whose being all things are the becomings. It is, secondly, the declaration of a unified knowledge and bhakti as the supreme Yoga; that is the destined and the natural way given to man to arrive at union with the eternal Godhead. And to make more significant this definition of the way, to give an illuminating point to this highest importance of bhakti founded upon and opening to knowledge and made the basis and motivepower for divinely appointed works, the acceptance of it by the heart and mind of the disciple is put as a condition for the farther development by which the final comm and to action comes at last to be given to the human instrument, Arjuna. "I will speak this supreme word to thee" says the Godhead "from my will for thy soul's good, now that thy heart is taking delight in me," te pryaman.aya vaks.yami. For this delight of the heart in God is the whole constituent and essence of true bhakti, bhajanti prtipurvakam. As soon as the supreme word is given, Arjuna is made to utter his acceptance of it and to ask for a practical way of seeing God in all things in Nature, and from that question immediately and naturally there develops the vision of the Divine as the Spirit of the universe and there arises the tremendous comm and to the world-action.1
The idea of the Divine on which the Gita insists as the secret of the whole mystery of existence, the knowledge that leads to liberation, is one that bridges the opposition between the cosmic procession in Time and a supracosmic eternity without denying either of them or taking anything from the reality of either. It harmonises the pantheistic, the theistic and the highest transcendental terms of our spiritual conception and spiritual experience. The Divine is the unborn Eternal who has no origin; there is and can be nothing before him from which he proceeds, because he is one and timeless and absolute. "Neither the gods nor the great Rishis know any birth of me. . . . He who knows
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The Transcendent knows and originates these things, but is not caught as in a web in that diversified knowledge and is not overcome by his creation. We must observe here the emphatic collocation of the three words from the verb bhu, to become, bhavanti, bhavah., bhutanam. All existences are becomings of the Divine, bhutani; all subjective states and movements are his and their psychological becomings, bhavah.. These even, our lesser subjective conditions and their apparent results no less than the highest spiritual states, are all becomings from the supreme Being,4 bhavanti matta eva. The Gita recognises and stresses the distinction between Being and becoming, but does
3 pra bhava, bhava, pravr.tti.
Cf. the Upanishad, atma eva abhut sarvan.i bhutani, the Self has become all existences, with this contained significance in the choice of the words, the Self-existent has become all these becomings.
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It is at first a wisdom of the intelligence, the buddhi; but that is accompanied by a moved spiritualised state of the affective nature,6 bhava. This change of the heart and mind is the beginning of a total change of all the nature. A new inner birth and becoming prepares us for oneness with the supreme object of our love and adoration, mad bhavaya. There is an intense delight of love in the greatness and beauty and perfection of this divine Being now seen everywhere in the world and above it, prti. That deeper ecstasy assumes the place of the scattered and external pleasure of the mind in existence or rather it draws all other delight into it and transforms by a marvellous alchemy the mind's and the heart's feelings and all sense movements. The whole consciousness becomes full of the Godhead and replete with his answering consciousness; the whole life flows into one sea of bliss-experience. All the speech and thought of such Godlovers becomes a mutual utterance and understanding of the
5 sarvatha vartamano'pi sa yog mayi vartate.
budha bhava-samanvitah..
354
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2.07 - The Triangle of Love, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
There can be no triangle without all its three angles; and there can be no true love without its three following characteristics. The first angle of our triangle of love is, that love knows no bargaining. Wherever there is any seeking for something in return, there can be no real love; it becomes a mere matter of shopkeeping, As long as there is in us any idea of deriving this or that favour from God in return for our respect and allegiance to Him, so long there can be no true love growing in our hearts. Those who worship God because they wish Him to bestow favours on them, are sure not to worship Him, if those favours are not forthcoming. The bhakta loves the Lord because He is lovable; there is no other motive originating or directing this divine emotion of the true devotee. We have heard it said that a great king once went into a forest and there met a sage. He talked with the sage a little and was very much pleased with his purity and wisdom.
The king then wanted the sage to oblige him by receiving a present from him. The sage refused to do so, saying, The fruits of the forest are enough food for me; the pure streams of water flowing down from the mountains give enough of drink for me; the barks of the trees supply me with enough of covering; and the caves of the mountains form my home. Why Should I take any present from you or from anybody? The king said, Just to benefit me, sir, please take something from my hands, and please come with me to the city and to my palace. After much persuasion, the sage at last consented to do as the king desired and went with him to his palace. Before offering the gift to the sage the king repeated his prayers, saying, Lord, give me more children; Lord, give me more wealth; Lord, give me more territory ; Lord, keep my body in better health, and so on. Before the king finished saying his prayer, the sage had got up and walked away from the room quietly. At this the king became perplexed and began to follow him, crying aloud, Sir, you are going away, you have not received my gifts. The sage turned round to him and said, I do not beg of beggars. You are yourself nothing but a beggar; and how can you give me anything? I am no fool to think of taking anything from a beggar like you. Go away, do not follow me. There is well brought out the distinction between mere beggars and the real lovers of God.
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Love knows no reward. Love is always for loves sake. The bhakta loves because he cannot help loving. When you see a beautiful scenery and fall in love with it, you do not demand anything in the way of favour from the scenery; nor does the scenery demand anything from you. Yet the vision thereof brings you to a blissful state of the mind, it tones down all the friction in your soul, it makes you calm, almost raises you, for the time being, beyond your mortal nature, and places you in a condition of quite divine ecstasy. This nature of real love is the first angle of our triangle. Ask not anything in return for your love; let your position be always that of the giver; give your love unto God, but do not ask anything in return even from Him.
The second angle of the triangle of love is, that love knows no fear. Those that love God through fear are the lowest of human beings, quite undeveloped as men. They worship God from fear of pumshment. He is a great being to them, with a whip in one hand and the sceptre in the other; if they do not obey Him they are afraid they will be whipped.
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2.08 - ALICE IN WONDERLAND, #God Exists, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
I brought those ideas before you to bring about a comparison between the greatest thinkers of the East like Acharya Sankara, the Rishis of the Upanishads, and Sri Krishna of the bhagavad Gita and Western thinkers like Plato, Aristotle and Kant. They seem to be thinking alike. Only they seem to be thinking in different languages and giving different definitions.
So we are now face to face with the great reality, the God of the cosmos. We have passed through the analysis. We have conducted a study of the three stages of consciousness waking, dream and deep sleep. We studied epistomological processes the perception of the world, how we come in contact with things, and how we know that the world exists at all. This also we have concluded. Many of you may not remember it, but think over or see your diaries if you have noted anything down.
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I have been telling you sometimes that there is some secret meaning behind the last words in the Eleventh Chapter of the Gita where we are told that bhakti is supreme. The bhakti that Sri Krishna speaks of here is not ordinary obeisance to an idol. It is not a mass that you perform in the church. It is a melting of your being before the Absolute. Therefore bhagavan Sri Krishna says, Not charity, not philanthropy, not study, not austerity, is capable of bringing about this great vision that you had, Arjuna! Only by devotion can I be seen, contacted. Only by devotion am I capable of being known, seen and entered into. These three words are used in the bhagavad Gita at the end of the Eleventh Chapterknowing, seeing, and entering. Arjuna knew and saw, but never entered into It. Therefore, he was the same Arjuna after the bhagavad Gita also. He never merged into the Supreme Being.
Now, religion is knowing, seeing and entering into. Knowing is considered by such thinkers like Ramanuja, the great propounder of the Visishtadvaita philosophy, as inferior to devotion. I am now digressing a little bit from the point, into another thing altogether, which is also interesting.
Knowledge or Jnana is not equal to bhakti, says Ramanuja, the great propounder of the doctrine and philosophy called Visishtadvaita. And Acharya Sankara says that Jnana is superior to bhakti. It may appear that they are quarrelling. They have some emphasis laid on different aspects of the same question. Why does bhagavan Sri Krishna say that nothing can make you fit to see the vision of God, to behold Him, except bhakti? It would seem that He speaks like Ramanuja and not like Sankara. But they are only speaking in different languages the same thing. There is no contradiction between them. Knowing, seeing and entering into signifies the process of contacting God by degrees. There is, in the parlance of Vedanta, two types of knowledgeParoksha Jnana and Aporkasha Jnana. Paroksha Jnana is direct knowledge. God exists is indirect knowledge. Now, we do not feel that we are inseparable from Gods being. That knowledge has not come to us. So we have not entered such a height of religious consciousness as to be convinced that we are inseparable from Gods existence. But we are convinced enough to feel that God exists.
At least the people seated here are perhaps convinced that God must be. He is.
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The way in which we are seeing the universe now is something like the possibility of a particular organism, called the cell in the body, separating itself in motionnot really of coursefrom the bodily organism and looking at the body. What would be the condition or the experience of a cell in our own body notionally isolating itself from the organism to which it belongs and considering the body as a world outside it? You can imagine the stupidity of it. This is exactly what we are doing. We think that the world is outside us. We can fly into space, drive in a motor car on a road, because a peculiar notion has become a reality in our mind, that the world is outside us though we are a part of the world. So, the idea that the Virat is an of perception, that the world is external to us, is notional and not realistic. All our difficulties are notional in the end. They have no reality or substance in themselves. We are bound by our minds, our thoughts, our feelings and our willings. So when Acharya Sankara says that Jnana is superior and Ramanuja says that bhakti is superior, they are saying the same thing.
By bhakti, Ramanuja means that love of God which supersedes intellectual activity or a mere knowing that God exists. And when Sankara says that Jnana or knowledge is superior, he means knowledge which is identical with being and which is same as Para bhakti or the love of God where the soul is in communion with the Being of God.
The highest devotion is the same as the highest knowledge. Jnana and Para bhakti are the same. The Gauna bhakti or secondary love of God, which is more ritualistic and more formal, is inferior. But Ramanujas bhakti is the surging of the soul and the melting of personality in God-experience. It is to become mad with God-love as we hear in the case of Spinoza, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Mirabai and Tukaram. Their bhakti was not simply love of God as that of churchmen or templemen. It is a kind of ecstasy in which the personality has lost itself in God-love and God-being. That is Jnana and that is bhakti. So, there is no difference between Ramanuja and Sankara in the ultimate reaches. And bhagavan Sri Krishnas dictum is also of a similar character.
So now, when we are discussing the final point in our studies, we are gradually losing attachments to his obsessional notion that we are this little Mr. and Mrs. Body and that we are located in a part of the physical world called India or America, Japan or Russia. And we are slowly trying to become citizens of a larger dimension which is wider than this earth, perhaps larger than even the solar system and this physical cosmos.
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2.08 - AT THE STAR THEATRE (II), #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"The other day I told you the meaning of bhakti. It is to adore God with body, mind, and words. 'With body' means to serve and worship God with one's hands, go to holy places with one's feet, hear the chanting of the name and glories of God with one's ears, and behold the divine image with one's eyes. 'With mind' means to contemplate and meditate on God constantly and to remember and think of His lila. 'With words' means to sing hymns to Him and chant His name and glories.
"Devotion as described by Nrada is suited to the Kaliyuga. It means to chant constantly the name and glories of God. Let those who have no leisure worship God at least morning and evening by whole-heartedly chanting His name and clapping their hands.
--
"Nishtha leads to bhakti; bhakti, when mature, becomes bhava; bhava, when concentrated, becomes maha bhava; and last of all is prema. Prema is like a cord: by prema God is bound to the devotee; He can no longer run away. An ordinary man can at best achieve bhava. None but an Isvarakoti attains maha bhava and prema.
Chaitanyadeva attained them.
--
Prahlada sometimes was aware of his identity with Brahman. And sometimes he would see that God was one and he another; at such times he would remain in the mood of bhakti.
"Hanuman said, 'O Rma, sometimes I find that You are the whole and I a part, sometimes that You are the Master and I Your servant; but, O Rma, when I have the Knowledge of Reality, I see that You are I and I am You.'"
--
Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood; From One who knows it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava...
Again he sang:
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M. said: "A young girl-the heroine-fell into the hands of a robber named bhavani Pathak.
Her name had been Prafulla, but the robber changed it to 'Devi Choudhurani'. At heart bhavani was a good man. He made Prafulla go through many spiritual disciplines; he also taught her how to perform selfless action. He robbed wicked people and with that money fed the poor and helpless. He said to Prafulla, 'I chastise the wicked and protect the virtuous.'"
MASTER: "But that is a king's duty."
M: "In one place the author writes of bhakti. bhavani Pathak sent a girl named Nishi to keep Prafulla company. Nishi was full of piety and looked on Krishna as her husband.
Prafulla was already married; she had lost her father and lived with her mother. The neighbours had created a scandal about her character and avoided her, and so her father-in-law had not allowed her to live with his son. Later her husb and had married again; but Prafulla was extremely devoted to her husband.
--
NISHI: "I am a daughter of bhavani Pathak. He is my father. He has also, in a way, given me in marriage."
PRAFULLA: "What do you mean?"
--
This young lady was a disciple of bhavani and well-versed in logic. But Prafulla was illiterate; she could not answer Nishi's arguments.But the writers of the Hindu social laws knew the reply. God is infinite, no doubt; but one cannot keep the infinite in the small cage of the heart. One can do so only with the finite. Therefore the infinite Creator of the universe is worshipped by the Hindu in the cage of his heart as Sri Krishna, the finite Personal God. The husb and of a woman has a still more definite form. Therefore if the wife cherishes pure conjugal love, the husb and becomes the first step toward God.
Hence the husb and is the only Deity to the Hindu woman. Other societies are inferior to Hindu society in this respect.
--
NISHI: " bhavani Pathak has given me the name of Nishi, Night. I am the sister of Diva, Day. One day I shall introduce my sister to you. Let me continue what I was saying. God alone is the real Husband; and to a woman the husb and is her only God. Sri Krishna is the God of all. Why should we cherish two Deities, two Gods? If you divide to little bhakti of this small heart, how little there will be!"
PRAFULLA: "Don't be silly. Is there any limit to a woman's bhakti?"
NISHI: "There is no end to a woman's love. But bhakti is one thing, and love another"
Summarizing part of the book, M. said that bhavani initiated Prafulla into spiritual life.
He continued reading:
During the first year bhavani did not allow any man to enter Prafulla's house nor did he allow her to speak to any man outside the house. During the second year the rule about speaking was withdrawn, but no man was allowed inside her house. In the third year Prafulla shaved her head. Now bhavani allowed his select disciples to see her. The shaven-headed disciple would converse with them on scriptural topics, keeping her eyes cast on the ground.
M. then read that Prafulla began the study of the scriptures; that she finished grammar and read Raghuvamsa, Kumara Sam bhava, Sakuntala, and Naishadha; and that she studied a little of the Samkhya, Vednta, and Nyaya philosophies.
--
Prafulla finished her studies and then practised spiritual austerity for many days. Then one day bhavani visited her; he wanted to instruct her about selfless work. He quoted to her from the Git: "Therefore do thou always perform obligatory actions without attachment; by performing action without attachment one attains to the highest."
He told her the three characteristics of disinterested action: first, control of the sense-organs; second, absence of egotism; and third, surrendering the fruit of action to Sri Krishna. He further told her that no dharma is possible for the egotistic person. Quoting from the Git, he said: "The Guns of Prakriti perform all action. With the understanding deluded by egotism, man thinks, I am the doer."
--
MASTER: "This is fine. These are the words of the Git; one cannot refute them. But something else must be noted. The author speaks about surrendering the fruit of action to Sri Krishna, but not about cultivating bhakti for Him."
M: "No, that is not especially mentioned here.
"Next Prafulla and bhavani talked about the use of money. Prafulla said that she offered all her wealth to Krishna."
M. read from the book again.
--
M: "Next bhavani asked Prafulla, 'How will you offer all this money to Sri Krishna?'
Prafulla said: 'Why, Sri Krishna dwells in all beings. I shall distribute the money among them.' bhavani answered, 'Good! Good!'
"Quoting from the Git , bhavani said: 'He who sees Me in all things and all things in Me, never becomes separated from Me, nor do I become separated from him. That yogi who, established in unity, worships Me dwelling in all beings, abides in Me, whatever his mode of life. O Arjuna, that yogi is regarded as the highest who judges the pleasure and pain of all beings by the same standard that he applies to himself."
MASTER: "These are the characteristics of the highest bhakta."
M. again read from the book:
A man must work hard if he wants to help all beings with charity. Hence it is necessary for him to make a little display of clothes, of pomp and luxury. Therefore bhavani said, "A little shopkeeping is necessary."
MASTER (sharply): "'A little shopkeeping is necessary!' One speaks as one thinks. If a man thinks of worldly things day and night, and deals with people hypocritically, then his words are coloured by his thoughts. If one eats radish, one belches radish. Instead of talking about 'shopkeeping', he should rather have said, 'A man should act as if he were the doer, knowing very well that he is really not the doer.' The other day a man was singing here. The song contained words like 'profit' and 'loss'. I stopped him. If one contemplates a particular subject day and night, one cannot talk of anything else."
--
Yoga, as it is described in the Git, is of three kinds: jnna, bhakti, and karma. One is able to see God through this telescope of yoga."
MASTER: "That is very good. These are the words of the Git."
--
"You partake of the nature of him on whom you meditate. By worshipping iva you acquire the nature of iva. A devotee of Rma meditated on Hanuman day and night. He used to think he had become Hanuman. In the end he was firmly convinced that he had even grown a little tail. Jnna is the characteristic of iva, and bhakti of Vishnu. One who partakes of iva's nature becomes a Jnni, and one who partakes of Vishnu's nature becomes a bhakta."
Chaitanya & The Divine Incarnation and the ordinary man M: "But what about Chaitanyadeva? You said he had both knowledge and devotion."
--
MASTER: "Can you ever see God if you do not direct your whole mind toward Him? The bhagavata speaks about Sukadeva. When he walked about he looked like a soldier with fixed bayonet. His gaze did not wander; it had only one goal and that was God. This is the meaning of yoga.
"The chatak bird drinks only rain-water. Though the Ganges, the Jamuna, the Godavari, and all other rivers are full of water, and though the seven oceans are full to the brim, still the chatak will not touch them. It will drink only the water that falls from the clouds.
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2.08 - God in Power of Becoming, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
He acclaims in him the original Godhead, adores the Unborn who is the pervading, indwelling, self-extending master of all existence, adi-devam ajam vibhum. He accepts him therefore not only as that Wonderful who is beyond expression of any kind, for nothing is sufficient to manifest him, - "neither the Gods nor the Titans, O blessed Lord, know thy manifestation," na hi te bhagavan vyaktim vidur deva na danavah., - but as the lord of all existences and the one divine efficient cause of all their becoming, God of the gods from whom all godheads have sprung, master of the universe who manifests and governs it from above by the power of his supreme and his universal Nature, bhuta bhavana bhutesa deva-deva jagat-pate. And lastly he accepts him as that Vasudeva in and around us who is all things here by virtue of the world-pervading, all-inhabiting, all-constituting master powers of his becoming, vibhutayah., "the sovereign powers of thy becoming by which thou standest pervading these worlds," yabhir vibhutibhir lokan imams tvam vyapya tis.t.hasi.1
He has accepted the truth with the adoration of his heart, the submission of his will and the understanding of his intelligence.
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2.08 - The God of Love is his own proof, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
What is the ideal of the lover who has quite passed beyond beyond the idea of selfishness, of bartering and bargaining, and who knows no fear? Even to the great God such a man will say, I will give You my all, and I do not want anything from You; indeed there is nothing that I can call my own. When a man has acquired this conviction, his ideal becomes one of perfect love, one of perfect fearlessness of love. The highest ideal of such a person has no narrowness of particularity about it; it is love universal, love without limits and bonds, love itself, absolute love. This grand ideal of the religion of love is worshipped and loved absolutely as such without the aid of any symbols or suggestions. This is the highest form of Para- bhakti, the worship of such an all-comprehending ideal as the ideal; all the other forms of bhakti are only stages on the way to reach it. All our failures and all our successes in following the religion of love are on the road to the reallsatlon of that one ideal. Object after object is taken up, and the inner ideal is successively projected on them all; and all such external objects are found inadequate as exponents of the everexpanding inner ideal, and are naturally rejected one after another. At last the aspirant begins to think that it is vain to try to realise the ideal in external objects, that all external objects are as nothing when compared with the ideal itself; and, in course of time, he acquires the power of realising the highest and the most generalised abstract ideal entirely as an abstraction that is to him quite alive and real. When the devotee has reached this point, he is no more impelled to ask whether God can be demonstrated or not, whether He is omnipotent and omniscient or not. To him He is only the God of Love: He is the highest ideal of love, and that is sufficient for all his purposes; He, as love, is self-evident; it requires no proofs to demonstrate the existence of the beloved to the lover. The magistrate-Gods of other forms of religion may require a good deal of proof to prove Them; but the bhakta does pot and cannot think of such Gods at all. To him God exists entirely as love. None, O beloved, loves the husb and for the husbands sake, but it is for the sake of the Self who is in the husb and that the husb and is loved; none, O beloved, loves the wife for the wifes sake, but it is for the sake of the Self who is in the wife that the wife is loved. It is said by some that selfishness is the only motive power in regard to all human activities. That also is love lowered by being particularised. When I think of myself as comprehending the Universal, there can surely be no selfishness in me; but when I, by mistake, think that I am a little something, my love becomes particularised and narrowed.
The mistake consists in making the sphere of love narrow and contracted. All things in the universe are of divine origin and deserve to be loved; it has, however, to be borne in mind that the love of the whole includes the love of the parts. This whole is the God of the bhaktas and all the other Gods, Fathers in Heaven, or Rulers, or Creators, and all theories and doctrines and books have no purpose and no meaning for them, seeing that they have, through their supreme love and devotion, risen above those things altogether. When the heart is purified and cleansed and filled to the brim with the divine nectar of love, all other ideas of God become simply puerile, and are rejected as being inadequate or unworthy. Such is indeed the power of Para- bhakti or Supreme Love; and the perfected bhakta no more goes to see God in temples and churches; he knows no place where he will not find Him. He finds Him in the temple as well as out of the temple; he finds Him in the saints saintliness as well as in the wicked mans wickedness, because he has Him already seated in glory in his own heart, as the one Almighty, inextinguishable Light of Love, which is ever shining and eternally present.
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2.09 - Human representations of the Divine Ideal of Love, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
It is impossible to express the nature of this supreme and absolute ideal of love in human language. Even the highest flight of human imagination is incapable of comprehending it in all its infinite perfection and beauty. Nevertheless, the followers of the religion of love, in its .higher as well as its lower forms, in all countries, have all along had to use the inadequate human language to comprehend and to define their own ideal of love. Nay more; human love itself, in all its varied forms, has been made to typify this inexpressible divine love. Man can think of divine things only in his own human way; to us the Absolute can be expressed only in our relative language. The whole universe is to us a writing of the Infinite in the language of the finite. Therefore bhaktas make use of all the common i terms associated with the common love of humanity in relation to God and His worship through love. Some of the great writers on Para bhakti have tried to understand and experience this divine love in so many different ways. The lowest form in which this love is apprehended is what they call the peaceful the Shnta (zaNt). When a man worships God without the fire of love in him, without its madness in his brain, when his love is just the calm commonplace love, a little higher than mere forms and ceremonies and symbols, but not at all characterised by the madness of intensely active love, it is said to be Shnta. We see some people in the world who like to move on slowly, and others who come and go like the whirlwind. The Shnta- bhakta is calm, peaceful, gentle. The next higher type is that of Dsya (daSy) i.e. servantship; it comes when a man thinks he is the servant of the Lord. The attachment of the faithful servant unto the master is his ideal.
The next type of love is Sakhya (sOy), friendship Thou art our beloved friend. Just as a man opens his heart to his friend and knows that the friend will never chide him for his faults, but will always try to help him, just as there is the idea of equality between him and his friend, so equal love flows in and out between the worshipper and his friendly God. Thus God becomes our friend, the friend who is near, the friend to whom we may freely tell all the tales of our lives! The innermost secrets of .our hearts we may place before Him with the great assurance of safety and support; He is the friend whom the devotee accepts as an equal; God is viewed here as our playmate. We may well say that we are all playing in this universe. Just as children play their games, just as the most glorious kings and emperors play their own games, so is the Beloved Lord Himself in sport with this universe. He is perfect; He does not want anything.
--
One who has been kissed by Thee, has his thirst for Thee increasing for ever, all his sorrows vanish, and he forgets all things except Thee alone. Aspire after that kiss of the Beloved, that touch of His lips which makes the bhakta mad, which makes of man a god. To him, who has been blessed with such a kiss, the whole of nature changes, worlds vanish, suns and moons die out, and the universe itself melts away into that one infinite ocean of love. That is the perfection of the madness of love. Aye; the true spiritual lover does not rest even there; even the love of husb and and wife is not mad enough for him. The bhaktas take up also the idea of illegitimate love, because it is so strong; the impropriety of it is not at all the thing they have in view. The nature of this love is such that the more obstructions there are for its free play, the more passionate it becomes. The love between husb and and wife is smooth, there are no obstructions there.
So the bhaktas take up the idea of a girl who is in love with her own beloved, and her mother or father or husb and objects to such love; and the more anybody obstructs the course of her love, so much the more is her love tending to grow in strength.
Human language cannot describe how Krishna in the groves of Vrind was madly loved, how at the sound of his voice the ever-blessed Gopis rushed out to meet him, forgetting everything, forgetting this world and its ties, its duties, its joys, and its sorrows. Man, O man, you speak of divine love and at the same time are able to attend to all the vanities of this world-are you sincere? Where Rma is, there is no room for any desire;where desire is, there is no room for Rma; these never co-existlike light and darkness they are never together.
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2.09 - On Sadhana, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: It is no use hurrying about psychic experiences and realisations. One must prepare the physical mind, the intelligence by common knowledge as well as knowledge pertaining to Yoga. One must understand what comes to him. Sometimes one does not even know what has come to him. One must also pay attention to Shuddhi, purification, by introspection, by Karma Yoga and by bhakti. Then a step forward can be taken.
The question was raised about the Guru giving spiritual experience to disciples.
--
Sri Aurobindo: There are many moods: there is the light mood, the angry mood, the emotional mood you would be a great bhakta if you got into the last.
Disciple: Drinking had no effect on me: I simply used to get giddy.
--
Disciple: Ahaituk bhakti and ahaituk kp means that there is no motive that is, human purpose or reason which man can attribute to them. But there is always some other purpose which man may not be knowing.
Sri Aurobindo: That is a different matter; it may have no human purpose.
--
Sri Aurobindo: I don't think it is so easy. I think the only man who came very near to it was Jada bharat, the sage.
Disciple: Even he burst out while carrying the king's palanquin, the occasion was too tempting! (Laughter)
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2.09 - THE MASTERS BIRTHDAY, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
After a long time, when he was regaining partial consciousness, the devotees seated him on the carpet and placed a plate of food before him. Still overcome with divine emotion, he began to eat the rice with both hands. He said to bhavanth, "Feed me." Because of his ecstatic mood he could not use his own right hand. bhavanth began to feed him Sri Ramakrishna could eat very little. Rm said to him, "Nityagopl will eat from your plate."
MASTER: "Why from my plate? Why?"
--
"Speaking of pure bhakti, I say to Hazra, 'A real devotee does not pray to God for money or riches.' Hazra replies: 'When the flood of divine grace descends, the rivers overflow; and further, the pools and canals are filled. By the grace of God one gets not only pure devotion but also the six supernatural powers, and money too.' "
Narendra and many other devotees were seated on the floor. Girish entered the room and joined them.
--
It was about dusk. Many of the devotees saluted Sri Ramakrishna and started to go home. The Master went to the west porch. bhavanth and M. were with him.
MASTER (to bhavanth): "Why do you come here so seldom?"
bhaVANTH (smiling): "Sir, I visit you once in a fortnight. I saw you in the street the other day, so I didn't come here."
--
Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood; From One who knows it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava.
A man has come to me from a country where there is no night, And now I cannot distinguish day from night any longer; Rituals and devotions have all grown profitless for me.
--
" bhakti, love of God, is the only essential thing. One kind of bhakti has a motive behind it. Again, there is a motiveless love, pure devotion, a love of God that seeks no return.
Keshab Sen and the members of the Brahmo Samaj didn't know about motiveless love.
--
"There is another kind of love, known as urjhita bhakti, an ecstatic love of God that overflows, as it were. When it is awakened, the devotee 'laughs and weeps and dances and sings'. Chaitanyadeva is an example of this love. Rma said to Lakshmana, 'Brother, if anywhere you see the manifestation of urjhita bhakti, know for certain that I am there.'"
GIRlSH: "Everything is possible through your grace. What was I before? And see what I am now."
--
MASTER: "Reasoning is one of the paths; it is the path of the Vedantists. But there is another path, the path of bhakti. If a bhakta, weeps longingly for the Knowledge of Brahman, he receives that as well. These are the two paths: jnna and bhakti.
The ego of the Divine Incarnation
"One may attain the Knowledge of Brahman by either path. Some retain bhakti even after realizing Brahman, in order to teach humanity. An Incarnation of God is one of these.
"A man cannot easily get rid of the ego and the consciousness that the body is the soul.
--
The path of bhakti
"Since one cannot easily get rid of the ego, a bhakta does not explain away the states of waking, dream, and deep sleep. He accepts all the states. Further, he accepts the three Guns-sattva, rajas, and tamas. A bhakta sees that God alone has become the twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe, and all living beings. He also sees that God reveals Himself to His devotees in a tangible form, which is the embodiment of Spirit.
"The bhakta takes shelter under Vidy-my. He seeks holy company, goes on pilgrimage, and practises discrimination, devotion, and renunciation. He says that, since a man cannot easily get rid of his ego, he should let the rascal remain as the servant of God, the devotee of God.
Meaning of liberation
"But a bhakta also attains the Knowledge of Oneness; he sees that nothing exists but God. He does not regard the world as a dream, but says that it is God Himself who has become everything. In a wax garden you may see various objects, but everything is made of wax.
"But a man realizes this only when his devotion to God has matured. One gets jaundice when too much bile accumulates. Then one sees everything as yellow. From constantly meditating on Krishna, Radhika saw everything as Krishna; moreover, she even felt that she herself had become Krishna. If a piece of lead is kept in a lake of mercury a long time, it turns into mercury. The cockroach becomes motionless by constantly meditating on the kumira worm; it loses the power to move. At last it is transformed into a kumira.
Similarly, by constantly meditating on God the bhakta loses his ego; he realizes that God is he and he is God. When the cockroach becomes the kumira everything is achieved.
Instantly one obtains liberation.
--
Different aspects of bhakti
MASTER: " bhakti is the only essential thing. bhakti has different aspects: the sattvic, the rajasic, and the tamasic. One who has sattvic bhakti is very modest and humble. But a man with tamasic bhakti is like a highwayman in his attitude toward God. He says: 'O
God, I am chanting. Your name; how can I be a sinner? O God, You are my own Mother; You must reveal yourself to me.' "
GIRISH (smiling): "It is you, sir, who teach us tamasic bhakti."
Different kinds of samdhi
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MASTER: "True, true. But a man realizes that when he has the Knowledge of Brahman; But for a bhakta, who follows the path of divine love, both exist-Vidy-my and Avidy-
my.
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2.1.01 - The Central Process of the Sadhana, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
As regards Xs questionthis is not a Yoga of bhakti alone; it is or at least it claims to be an integral Yoga, that is, a turning of all the being in all its parts to the Divine. It follows that there must be knowledge and works as well as bhakti and, in addition, it includes a total change of the nature, a seeking for perfection, so that the nature also may become one with the nature of the Divine. It is not only the heart that has to turn to the Divine and change, but the mind alsoso knowledge is necessary, and the will and power of action and creation alsoso works too are necessary. In this Yoga the methods of other Yogas are taken uplike this of Purusha-Prakriti, but with a difference in the final object. Purusha separates from Prakriti, not in order to abandon her, but in order to know himself and her and to be no longer her plaything, but the knower, lord and upholder of the nature; but having become so or even in becoming so, one offers all that to the Divine. One may begin with knowledge or with works or with bhakti or with Tapasya of self-purification for perfection (change of nature) and develop the rest as a subsequent movement or one may combine all in one movement. There is no single rule for all, it depends on the personality and the nature. Surrender is the main power of the Yoga, but the surrender is bound to be progressive; a complete surrender is not possible in the beginning, but only a will in the being for that completeness,in fact it takes time; yet it is only when the surrender is complete that the full flood of the sadhana is possible. Till then there must be the personal effort with an increasing reality of surrender. One calls in the power of the Divine Shakti and once that begins to come into the being, it at first supports the personal endeavour, then progressively takes up the whole action, although the consent of the sadhak continues to be always necessary. As the Force works, it brings in the different processes that are necessary for the sadhak, processes of knowledge, of bhakti, of spiritualised action, of transformation of the nature. The idea that they cannot be combined is an error.
***
The object of the sadhana is opening of the consciousness to the Divine and the change of the nature. Meditation or contemplation is one means to this but only one means; bhakti is another; work is another. Chittashuddhi was practised by the Yogis as a first means towards realisation and they got by it the saintliness of the saint and the quietude of the sage. But the transformation of the nature of which we speak is something more than that, and this transformation does not come by contemplation alone; works are necessary, Yoga in action is indispensable.
***
--
You forget that men differ in nature and therefore each will approach the sadhana in his own wayone through work, one through bhakti, one through meditation and knowledge and those who are capable of it through all together. You are perfectly justified in following your own way, whatever may be the theories of others but let them follow theirs. In the end all can converge together towards the same goal.
***
Work, Meditation and bhakti
There is no opposition between work and sadhana. Work itself done in the right spirit is sadhana. Meditation is not the only means of sadhana. Work is one means; love and worship and surrender are another.
--
It [the value of work in sadhana] depends more on the intensity of the spirit put into it than on the intensity of the work itself. As for the line on which most stress is laid, it depends on the nature. There are some people who are not cut out for meditation and it is only by work that they can prepare themselves; there are also those who are the opposite. As for the enormous development of egoism, that can come whatever one follows. I have seen it blossom in the dhyn as well as in the worker; Krishnaprem says it does so in the bhakta. So it is evident that all soils are favourable to this Narcissus flower. As for no need of sadhana, obviously one who does not do any sadhana cannot change or progress. Work, meditation, bhakti, all must be done as sadhana.
***
I have always said that work done as sadhanadone, that is to say, as an outflow of energy from the Divine offered to the Divine or work done for the sake of the Divine or work done in a spirit of devotionis a powerful means of sadhana and that such work is especially necessary in this Yoga. Work, bhakti and meditation are three supports of Yoga. One can do with all three, or two or one. There are people who cant meditate in the set way that one calls meditation, but they progress through work or through bhakti or through the two together. By work and bhakti one can develop a consciousness in which eventually a natural meditation and realisation become possible.
***
The growth out of the ordinary mind into the spiritual consciousness can be effected either by meditation, dedicated work or bhakti for the Divine. In our Yoga, which seeks not only a static peace or absorption but a dynamic spiritual action, work is indispensable. As for the Supramental Truth, that is a different matter; it depends only on the descent of the Divine and the action of the Supreme Force and is not bound by any method or rule.
***
There are very few among the sadhaks here who at all concern themselves with the supermind or know anything about it except as something which the Mother and I will bring down some day and establish here. Most are seeking realisation through meditation, through love and worship or through activity and work. Meditation and silence are not necessary for everyone; there are some, even among those spoken of by you and others as the most advanced sadhaks, who do their sadhana not through meditation, for which they have no turn, but through activity, work or creation supported or founded on love and bhakti. It is not the credo but the person who matters. We impose no credo; it is sufficient if there is an established and heart-felt relation between ourselves and the disciple.
***
--
Poetry by itself does not bring to the goal, but it can help as a means to express and deepen ones aspiration while it gives the vital an activity which can keep it from rusting and maintains its energy. Otherwise it may droop or go dry or sulk or non-cooperate. What will bring towards the goal is the growth of the psychic being, the increase in bhakti, psychic clarity of vision with regard to ones inner movements and the will to get rid of the vital ego, increase in pure self-giving. Meditation and the rest can bring only partial results or often no results until there has been a sufficient psychic preparation. Even with those who begin with a flood of experiences because of some mental or vital preparation in past lives whose results happen to be near the surface, these lead to nothing definite till the psychic preparation is made; they often have all their struggle still to go through and some sink with their bag of experiences on their head and a magnified ego on their back. It was this psychic growth that suddenly began in you. Dont let it stop; for through that lies your way. Once that is done, you can meditate and do everything else that may be needful.
***
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Love, bhakti, surrender, the psychic opening are the only short cut to the Divineor can be; for if the love and bhakti are too vital, then there is likely to be a seesaw between ecstatic expectation and viraha, abhimna, despair, which will make it not a short cut but a long one, a zigzag, not a straight flight, a whirling round ones own ego instead of a running towards the Divine.
***
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I may stress one point, however, that there need not be only one way to realisation of the Divine. If one does not succeed or has not yet succeeded in reaching him, feeling him or seeing him by the established process of meditation or by other processes like japa, yet one may have made progress towards it by the frequent welling up of bhakti in the heart or a constantly greater enlargement of it in the consciousness or by work for the Divine and dedication in service. You have certainly progressed in these two directions, increased in devotion and shown your capacity for service. You have also tried to get rid of obstacles in your vital nature and so effect a purification, not without success, in several difficult directions. The path of surrender is indeed difficult, but if one perseveres in it with sincerity, there is bound to be some success and a partial overcoming or diminution of the ego which may help greatly a farther advance upon the way. I can see no sufficient reason for the discouragement which so often overtakes you and sometimes makes you think that you are not cut out for the path; to indulge such a thought is always a mistake. A too ready proneness to discouragement and a consequent despondency is one of the weaknesses of your vital nature and to get rid of it would be a great help. One must learn to go forward on the path of Yoga, as the Gita insists, with a consciousness free from despondencyanirviacetas. Even if one slips, one must rectify the posture; even if one falls, one has to rise and go undiscouraged on the divine way. The attitude must be, The Divine has promised himself to me if I cleave to him always; that I will never cease to do whatever may come.
***
It is altogether unprofitable to enquire who or what class will arrive first or last at the goal. The spiritual path is not a field of competition or a race that this should matter. What matters is ones own aspiration for the Divine, ones own faith, surrender, selfless self-giving. Others can be left to the Divine who will lead each according to his nature. Meditation, work, bhakti are each means of preparative help towards fulfilment; all are included in this path. If one can dedicate oneself through work, that is one of the most powerful means towards the self-giving which is itself the most powerful and indispensable element of the sadhana.
To cleave to the path means to follow it without leaving it or turning aside. It is a path of self-offering of the whole being in all its parts, the offering of the thinking mind and the heart, the will and actions, the inner and the outer instruments so that one may arrive at the experience of the Divine, the Presence within, the psychic and spiritual change. The more one gives of oneself in all ways, the better for the sadhana. But all cannot do it to the same extent, with the same rapidity, in the same way. How others do it or fail to do it should not be ones concernhow to do it faithfully oneself is the one thing important.
--
I have never put any ban on bhakti. Also I am not conscious of having banned meditation either at any time. I have stressed both bhakti and knowledge in my Yoga as well as works, even if I have not given any of them an exclusive importance like Shankara or Chaitanya.
The difficulty you feel or any sadhak feels about sadhana is not really a question of meditation versus bhakti versus works. It is a difficulty of the attitude to be taken, the approach or whatever you may like to call it.
If you cant as yet remember the Divine all the time you are working, it does not greatly matter. To remember and dedicate at the beginning and give thanks at the end ought to be enough for the present. Or at the most to remember too when there is a pause. Your method seems to me rather painful and difficult,you seem to be trying to remember and work with one and the same part of the mind. I dont know if that is possible. When people remember all the time during work (it can be done), it is usually with the back of their minds or else there is created gradually a faculty of double thought or else a double consciousness one in front that works, and one within that witnesses and remembers. There is also another way which was mine for a long timea condition in which the work takes place automatically and without intervention of personal thought or mental action, while the consciousness remains silent in the Divine. The thing, however, does not come so much by trying as by a very simple constant aspiration and will of consecrationor else by a movement of the consciousness separating the inner from the instrumental being. Aspiration and will of consecration calling down a greater Force to do the work is a method which brings great results, even if in some it takes a long time about it. That is a great secret of sadhana, to know how to get things done by the Power behind or above instead of doing all by the minds effort. I dont mean to say that the minds effort is unnecessary or has no resultonly if it tries to do everything by itself, that becomes a laborious effort for all except the spiritual athletes. Nor do I mean that the other method is the longed-for short cut; the result may, as I have said, take a long time. Patience and firm resolution are necessary in every method of sadhana.
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2.1.02 - Combining Work, Meditation and Bhakti, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:2.1.02 - Combining Work, Meditation and bhakti
author class:Sri Aurobindo
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I mean by work action done for the Divine and more and more in union with the Divine for the Divine alone and nothing else. Naturally that is not easy at the beginning, any more than deep meditation and luminous knowledge are easy or even true love and bhakti are easy. But like the others it has to be begun in the right spirit and attitude, with the right will in you, then all the rest will come.
Works done in this spirit are quite as effective as bhakti or contemplation. One gets by the rejection of desire, rajas and ego a quietude and purity into which the Peace ineffable can descend; one gets by the dedication of ones will to the Divine, by the merging of ones will in the Divine Will the death of ego and the enlarging into the cosmic consciousness or else the uplifting into what is above the cosmic; one experiences the separation of Purusha from Prakriti and is liberated from the shackles of the outer nature; one becomes aware of ones inner being and feels the outer as an instrument; one feels the universal Force doing ones works and the Self or Purusha watching or witness but free; one feels all ones works taken from one and done by the universal or the supreme Mother or by the Divine Power controlling and acting from behind the heart. By constant reference of all ones will and works to the Divine, love and adoration grow, the psychic being comes forward. By the reference to the Power above we can come to feel it above and its descent and the opening to an increasing consciousness and knowledge. Finally works, bhakti and knowledge join together and self-perfection becomes possiblewhat we call the transformation of the nature.
These results certainly do not come all at once; they come more or less slowly, more or less completely according to the condition and growth of the being. There is no royal road to the divine realisation.
This is the Karmayoga as it is laid down in the Gita as I have developed it for the integral spiritual life. It is founded not on speculation and reasoning but on experience. It does not exclude meditation and it certainly does not exclude bhakti, for the self-offering to the Divine, the consecration of all oneself to the Divine which is the essence of this Karmayoga are essentially a movement of bhakti. Only it does exclude a life-fleeing exclusive meditation or an emotional bhakti shut up in its own inner dream taken as the whole movement of the Yoga. One may have hours of pure absorbed meditation or of the inner motionless adoration and ecstasy, but they are not the whole of the integral Yoga.
***
To say that one enters the stream of sadhana through work only is to say too much. One can enter it through meditation or bhakti also, but work is necessary to get into full stream and not drift away to one side and go circling there. Of course all work helps provided it is done in the right spirit.
***
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In spite of your disclaimer you practically come to the conclusion that all my nonsense about integral Yoga and karma being as much a way to realisation as jnana and bhakti is either a gleaming chimaera or practicable only by Avatars or else a sheer laborious superfluitysince one can bump straight into the Divine through the open door of bhakti or sweep majestically in on him by the easy high road of meditation; so why this scramble through the jungle of karma by which nobody ever reached anywhere? The old Yogas are true, are they not? Then why a new-fangled, more difficult Yoga with unheard talk about the supramental and God knows what else? There can be no answer to that; for I can only answer by a repetition of the statement of my own knowledge and experience that is what I have done in todays answer to Xand that amounts only to a perverse obstinacy in riding my gleaming and dazzling chimaera and forcing my nuisance of a superfluity on a world weary of itself and anxious to get a short easy cut to the Divine. Unfortunately, I dont believe in short cutsat any rate none ever led me where I wanted to go. However, let it rest there.
I have never disputed the truth of the old Yogas I have myself had the experience of Vaishnava bhakti and of Nirvana in the Brahman; I recognise their truth in their own field and for their own purpose the truth of their experience so far as it goesthough I am in no way bound to accept the truth of the mental philosophies founded on the experience. I similarly find that my Yoga is true in its own fielda larger field, as I think and for its own purpose. The purpose of the old is to get away from life to the Divineso, obviously, let us drop karma. The purpose of the new is to reach the Divine and bring the fullness of what is gained into life for that, Yoga by works is indispensable. It seems to me that there is no mystery about that or anything to perplex anybody it is rational and inevitable. Only you say that the thing is impossible; but that is what is said about everything before it is done.
I may point out that Karmayoga is not a new but a very old Yoga: the Gita was not written yesterday and Karmayoga existed before the Gita. Your idea that the only justification in the Gita for works is that it is an unavoidable nuisance, so better make the best of it, is rather summary and crude. If that were all, the Gita would be the production of an imbecile and I would hardly have been justified in writing two volumes on it or the world in admiring it as one of the greatest scriptures, especially for its treatment of the problem of the place of works in spiritual endeavour. There is surely more in it than that. Anyhow your doubt whether works can lead to realisation or rather your flat and sweeping denial of the possibility contradicts the experience of those who have achieved this supposed impossibility. You say that work lowers the consciousness, brings you out of the inner into the outeryes, if you consent to externalise yourself in it instead of doing works from within; but that is just what one has to learn not to do. Thought and feeling can also externalise one in the same way; but it is a question of linking thought, feeling and act firmly to the inner consciousness by living there and making the rest an instrument. Difficult? Even bhakti is not easy and Nirvana is for most men more difficult than all.
You again try to floor me with Ramakrishna. But one thing puzzles me, as Shankaras stupendous activity of karma puzzles me in the apostle of inactionyou see you are not the only puzzled person in the world. Ramakrishna also gave the image of the jar which ceased gurgling when it was full. Well, but Ramakrishna spent the last years of his life in talking about the Divine and receiving disciples that was not action, not work? Did Ramakrishna become a half-full jar after being a full one or was he never full? Did he get far away from God and so begin a work? Or had he reached a condition in which he was bound neither to rajasic work and mental prattling nor to inactivity and silence, but could do from the divine realisation the divine work and speak from the inner consciousness the divine word? If the last, perhaps in spite of his dictum, his example at least is rather in my favour.
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Finally, why suppose that I am against meditation or bhakti? I have not the slightest objection to your taking either or both as the means of approach to the Divine. Only I saw no reason why anyone should fall foul of works and deny the truth of those who have reached, as the Gita says, through works perfect realisation and oneness of nature with the Divine, sasiddhim, sdharmyam, as did Janaka and others, simply because he himself cannot find or has not yet found their deeper secre thence my defence of works.
***
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There are several sadhaks who have advanced very far by work alone, work consecrated to the Mother or else by work mainly with very little time for meditation. Others have advanced far by meditation mainly, but work also. Those who tried to do meditation alone and became impatient of work (because they could not consecrate it to the Mother) have generally been failures like X and Y. But one or two may succeed by meditation aloneif it is in their nature or if they have an intense and unshakable faith and bhakti. All depends on the nature of the sadhak.
As for the purtana mnua I do not see that the workers have their external being less changed than others. There are some who are where they were or only a little progressive, there are others who have changed a good dealnone is transformed altogether, though some have found a sure and sound spiritual and psychic basis. But that applies equally to workers who do not spend time in meditation and to those who spend a long time in meditation.
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The ignorance underlying this attitude [that meditation is greater than work] is in the assumption that one must necessarily do only work or only meditation. Either work is the means or meditation is the means, but both cannot be! I have never said, so far as I know, that meditation should not be done. To set up an open competition or a closed one between works and meditation is a trick of the dividing mind and belongs to the old Yoga. Please remember that I have been declaring all along an integral Yoga in which Knowledge, bhakti, workslight of consciousness, Ananda and love, will and power in worksmeditation, adoration, service of the Divine have all their place. Have I written seven volumes of the Arya all in vain? Meditation is not greater than Yoga of works nor works greater than Yoga by knowledgeboth are equal.
Another thingit is a mistake to argue from ones own very limited experience, ignoring that of others, and build on it large generalisations about Yoga. This is what many do, but the method has obvious demerits. You have no experience of major realisations through work, and you conclude that such realisations are impossible. But what of the many who have had themelsewhere and here too in the Asram? That has no value? You kindly hint to me that I have failed to get anything by works? How do you know? I have not written the history of my sadhanaif I had, you would have seen that if I had not made action and work one of my chief means of realisationwell, there would have been no sadhana and no realisation except that, perhaps, of Nirvana.
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I dont think you understood very well what Mother was trying to tell you. First of all she did not say that prayers or meditation either were no good how could she when both count for so much in Yoga? What she said was that the prayer must well up from the heart on a crest of emotion or aspiration, the Japa or meditation come in a live push carrying the joy or the light of the thing in it. If done mechanically and merely as a thing that ought to be done (stern grim duty!), it must tend towards want of interest and dryness and so be ineffective. It was what I meant when I said I thought you were doing Japa too much as a means for bringing about a result I meant too much as a device, a process laid down for getting the thing done. That again was why I wanted the psychological conditions in you to develop, the psychic, the mental for when the psychic is forward, there is no lack of life and joy in the prayer, the aspiration, the seeking, no difficulty in having the constant stream of bhakti and when the mind is quiet and inturned and upturned there is no difficulty or want of interest in meditation. Meditation by the way is a process leading towards knowledge and through knowledge, it is a thing of the head and not of the heart; so if you want dhyana, you cant have an aversion to knowledge. Concentration in the heart is not meditation, it is a call on the Divine, on the Beloved. This Yoga too is not a Yoga of knowledge aloneknowledge is one of its means, but its base being self-offering, surrender, bhakti, it is based on the heart and nothing can be eventually done without this base. There are plenty of people here who do or have done Japa and base themselves on bhakti, very few comparatively who have done the head meditation; love and bhakti and works are usually the basehow many can proceed by knowledge? Only the few.
***
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To know about the sadhana with the mind is not indispensable. If one has bhakti and aspires in the hearts silence, if there is the true love for the Divine, then the nature will open of itself, there will be the true experience and the Mothers power working within you, and the necessary knowledge will come.
***
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2.10 - Conclusion, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
Be Thou ever and ever my Love. Who cares to become sugar, says the bhakta, I want to taste sugar. Who will then desire to become free and one with God? I may know that I am He, yet will I take myself away from Him and become different, so that I may enjoy the Beloved. That is what the bhakta says. Love for loves sake is his highest enjoyment. Who will not be bound hand and foot a thousand times over to enjoy the Beloved? No bhakta cares for anything except love, except to love and to be loved. His unworldly love is like the tide rushing up the river; this lover goes up the river, against the current. The world calls him mad. I know one whom the world used to call mad, and this was his answer: My friends, the whole world is a lunatic asylum; some are mad after worldly love, some after name, some after fame, some after money, some after salvation and going to heaven. In this big lunatic asylum I am also mad, I am mad after God. If you are mad after money, I am mad after God. You are mad; so am I. I think my madness is after all the best. The true bhaktas love is this burning madness, before which everything else vanishes for him.
The whole universe is to him full of love and love alone; that is how it seems to the lover. So when a man has this love in him, he becomes eternally blessed, eternally happy; this blessed madness of divine love alone can cure for ever the disease of the world that is in us. With desire, selfishness has vanished. He has drawn near to God, he has thrown off all those vain desires of which he was full before, We all have to begin as dualists in the religion of love.
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This electronic edition of bhakti-Yoga was scanned / key-entered and proofed in November 2003 E.V. for Celephas Press, from the 1959 edition issued by Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta. No attempt has been made to retain the pagination of that edition.
Further proof-reading of the Sanskrit is almost certainly necessary as my knowledge of that language is minimal. This document uses the Sanskrit 98 font from Omkarananda Ashram Himalayas, Rishikesh, India, with a few additions.
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2.10 - On Vedic Interpretation, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: The third and the fourth Mandalas contain many subtle suggestions about the symbolism of the Veda. The hymns of Dirghatamas in the first Mandala are clearly mystic. The experience of the Rishis is common in general principles but it varies in detail. These details are hard to fix because you do not find any parallel to them in other hymns. And so, sometimes you become helpless. The general idea of the functions of Agni is the same. He is kavi-kratu. "one with a seer-will" or "one possessed of the seer-will". You have also to see the connection of Agni with Satya, the Truth. The good, bhadram, which Agni does is the increase in Truth. In the Brahmanas there are many hints that suggest the symbolism in the Veda. Yama, probably, is the Truth working on the physical aspect of the universe. The words dh, tam, satyam, bhat are among the important words for Vedic interpretation. Tri rocan when applied to svar refers to the three divisions of i. When it refers to three heavens, it means the heavens of the mental, vital and physical fulfilment. When each of these is fulfilled it is called 'heaven' and its fulfilment is by the highest Truth. Agni's own home sva damam is the highest Truth. In V. 12 the Rishi does not want the mixture of Truth and falsehood but wants only the Truth. Agni's own home is full of joy: Ananda is the pratih basis of the Divine Will.
In Mandala 1.95.1 there is mention of the 'child' that is One that child is Agni. He is called "the son of two mothers" of different colours of Day and Night, i.e., of Knowledge and Ignorance. Svarthe means "by the right path". Anyny "to each other" alternately; hari, "hill of coloured light"; svadhvn "having the law of its own being"; ukra, "white, shining white"; suvarcas, "full of bright light"; daa yuvataya (1.95.2) "Ten young women bear the child gar bha by Twashtri."
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2.10 - THE MASTER AND NARENDRA, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Sukadeva was absorbed in samdhi-nirvikalpa samdhi, jada samdhi. Since Suka was to recite the bhagavata to King Parikshit, the Lord sent the sage Nrada to him.
Nrada saw him seated like an inert thing, absolutely unconscious of the world around him. Thereupon Nrada sang four couplets on the beauty of Hari, to the accompaniment of the vina. While the first couplet was being sung the hair on Suka's body stood on end.
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"I-consciousness"after God-realization "The bhakta feels, 'O God, Thou art the Lord and I am Thy devotee.' This 'I' is the 'ego of bhakti'. Why does such a lover of God retain the 'ego of Devotion'? There is a reason.
The ego cannot begot rid of; so let the rascal remain as the servant of God, the devotee of God.
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Worldly people have no time for spiritual practice "When have worldly people time to think of God? A man wanted to engage a pundit who could explain the bhagavata to him. His friend said: 'I know of an excellent pundit. But there is one difficulty: he does a great deal of farming. He has four ploughs and eight bullocks and is always busy with them; he has no leisure.' Thereupon the man said: 'I don't care for a pundit who has no leisure. I am not looking for a bhagavata scholar burdened with ploughs and bullocks. I want a pundit who can really expound the sacred book to me.'
"There was a king who used to listen daily to a pundit's exposition of the bhagavata.
Every day at the end of their study the pundit would ask the king, 'O King, have you understood what I have read?' To this question the king would daily give the same reply: 'Sir, you had better understand it first yourself.' Each day, when the pundit returned home, he would ponder the meaning of the king's words. He was a pious man, devoted to prayer and meditation. Gradually he came to his senses and realized that the only real thing in the world is the Lotus Feet of God, and that all else is illusory. He felt dispassion for the world and took up the life of a monk. As he was leaving the world he sent a man to the king with the message: 'Yes, O King! Now I have understood.'
--
MASTER (to the younger Naren): "I have been eager to see you. You will succeed. Come here once in a while. Well, which do you prefer-jnna or bhakti?"
THE YOUNGER NAREN: "Pure bhakti."
MASTER: "But how can you love someone unless you know him? (Pointing to M, with a smile) How can you love him unless you know him? (To M.) Since a pure-souled person has asked for pure bhakti, it must have some meaning.
Genuine bhakti
"One does not seek bhakti of one's own accord without inborn tendencies. This is the characteristic of prema- bhakti. There is another kind of bhakti, called jnna- bhakti, which is love of God based on reasoning.
(To the younger Naren) "Let me look at your body; take off your shirt. Fairly broad chest. You will succeed. Come here now and then."
--
As Sri Ramakrishna spoke these words he looked at Mohini affectionately, as if scanning his inmost feelings. Was Mohini really wondering whether it would, be wise to renounce all for God? After a while Sri Ramakrishna said, "God binds the bhagavata pundit to the world with one tie; otherwise, who would remain to explain the sacred book? He keeps the pundit bound for the good of men. That is why the Divine Mother has kept you in the world."
Now Sri Ramakrishna spoke to the young brahmin.
MASTER: "Give up knowledge and reasoning; accept bhakti. bhakti alone is the essence.
Is this the third day of your stay here?"
--
"Jnna goes as far as the outer court, but bhakti can enter the inner court. The Pure Self is unattached. Both vidy and avidy are in It, but It is unattached. Sometimes there is a good and sometimes a bad smell in the air, but the air itself is unaffected.
Nature of tman
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MASTER (smiling): "A bullfrog was caught by a water-snake. The snake could neither swallow the frog nor let it go. As a result the frog suffered very much; he croaked continuously. And the snake suffered too. But if the frog had been seized by a cobra, he would have been quiet after one or two croaks. (All laugh.) (To the young devotees) "Read the bhaktichaitanya-chandrika by Trailokya. Ask Trailokya for a copy. He has written well about Chaitanyadeva."
A DEVOTEE: "Will he give it to us?"
--
MASTER: "But Mahima talks about bhakti also. He loves to recite the hymn: 'what need is there of penance if God is worshipped with love?' "
M. (smiling): "He says that because you make him say it."
--
MASTER: "A mother who says that is no mother; she is the embodiment of avidy. There is no sin in disobeying such a mother. She obstructs her son's path to God. There is no harm in disobeying your elders for the sake of God. For Rma's sake bharat did not obey his mother Kaikeyi. The gopis did not obey their husbands when they were forbidden to visit Krishna. Prahlada disobeyed his father for God. Vali disregarded the words of Sukracharya, his teacher, in order to please God. Bibhishana went against the wishes of Ravana, his elder brother, to please Rma. But you must obey your elders in all other things. Let me see your hand."
Sri Ramakrishna took Trak's hand into his own and seemed to feel its weight. A few moments later he said: "There is a little crookedness in your mind; but that will go. Pray to God a little and come here now and then. Yes, that twist will go. Is it you that have hired the house at Bowbazar?"
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2.10 - The Vision of the World-Spirit - Time the Destroyer, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Nature. Nimittamatram bhava savyasacin. He will not cherish personal enmity, anger, hatred, egoistic desire and passion, will not hasten towards strife or lust after violence and destruction like the fierce Asura, but he will do his work, lokasangrahaya.
Time the Destroyer
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2.11 - On Education, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Disciple: I hear that Hiren Dutt and Dr. bhagwandas also do not understand it.
Sri Aurobindo: But some Englishmen do understand the Arya. The Americans too are reading it easily because they understand the language of course, provided they take interest in the subject.
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2.1.1 - The Nature of the Vital, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is not at all a fact that your nature is incapable of love and bhakti; on the contrary that is the right way for you. Meditation is all right, but it will be most profitable for you if it is directed towards the increase of love and devotion; the rest will come of itself afterwards.
Also, it is not true that your nature is incapable of surrender; you made a great progress in that direction. But the complete surrender of all parts, especially of the whole vital, is certainly difficult. It can only come with the development of the consciousness. Meanwhile, that it has not fully come, is no reason for despair or giving up.
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