Swami Chinmayananda

 

Swami Chinmayananda’s answer to why does a realized person work?

When one realizes the Truth, one becomes irresistibly vibrant with life. In divine spontaneity, activity gurgles through him. The physical equipment is generally too frail a reed to stand the blazing gush of love and work; therefore, such prophetic masters generally fold up in a blinding flash of brilliant service to mankind, carried on for a short duration of perhaps twenty or thirty years.

 

Your question is, “Why should he work?” Can you tell me why the Sun is illumining everything around it? Why fire is hot? Sugar sweet? Oceanic waters salty? Why birds fly? Flowers bloom? Mirrors reflect? Air moves? Earth revolves?… Are they not expressing their essential nature? Can any one of them remain without their essential property? The realized saint is not responsible for what he is doing. He is one with Life. And Life expresses itself in action.

 

Swami Chinmayananda Saraswathi

Sathya Sai Vahni - Post 38

 

 Self-liberation and fulfillment

 

It is the inescapable destiny of everyone to fulfill themself. Every living being has to attain fullness in the end. Each one is at present at a particular stage of this march, as a result of the activities engaged in during previous lives and the feelings entertained in the past. The future is being built by the activities being engaged in now and the feelings that urge and shape them. That is to say, what one does, feels, or thinks about at present are the basic reasons for the good or bad fortune that is in store.

The prompting to save oneself and the power to pull oneself up into liberation cannot be derived from books. This strength has to come from the individual himself. One can spend an entire lifetime scanning profoundly written books; one might earn the highest rank among intellectuals. 

But at the end of it all, one might not have attained even some little progress in the spiritual field. To conclude that a scholar who has reached the topmost height can therefore be considered ripe in spiritual wisdom will prove to be a great mistake. 

Scholars themselves might imagine, as they learn more and more from books, that they are progressing more and more on the spiritual path, but when they examine the fruit of their studies, they will recognize that though their intellects have become sharper and heavier, they have not been acquiring awareness of the Atma to the slightest degree.

Character: the core of spirituality

Many people have the skill to deliver wonderful discourses on spiritual subjects; but, really speaking, everyone has failed in living the life of the spirit, the highest Atmic life. What exactly is the reason for this sad state of affairs? 

 

Now, spiritual texts are studied to equip oneself with scholarship in the competitive race for superiority, to earn a livelihood, to pose oneself as an undefeatable upholder of some specific point of view, and generally to earn a reputation as a pundit. The scholar might write elaborate commentaries on the Gita. But, as a result of all that study, if in their character, behavior, and conduct the scholar does not prove that the Gita has soaked in, all that scholarly level  is but a burden to be carrying around. This is the lesson that Indian (Bharathiya) culture tries to impress.

The source from which this lesson emerges is the Guru, the soul (purusha) latent in you. The study of the scriptures and other texts can reinforce the spiritual urges already in you and induce you to practise the precepts. 

Don’t treat the learning you derive from them as so much fodder for the brain. It must be sublimated into bliss (ananda) for the individual. Envy, pompousness, egotism — such evil traits have to be driven out of the individual.

 

Love.

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 37

God with and without form

 

Two ideas about God are described in the scriptures (sastras): the idea that He is cognizable as having attributes and the idea that He is free from all attributes, so He cannot be described as thus and thus. These are the with-form (saguna) and the without-form (nirguna) aspects. The with-form God is cognized as present everywhere, as the creator, sustainer, and destroyer of everything and being, as the Father and Mother of the Universe. 

 

Therefore, He is beyond and above all beings and things and eternally distinct and different from humanity. It is said by upholders of the with-form aspect that the very cognition of this attributeful principle brings about liberation (mukthi). Liberation is attained when one establishes oneself in this knowledge and lives in and through it.

 

The second way to acquire awareness is through contemplation on the attributeless without form principle. During this contemplation, the truth that the ascription of attributes to the divine principle is undesirable and inappropriate is realized and the attributes are shed from the concept of God. Then, the one universal attributeless person will alone remain in the consciousness. 

 

It can be referred to as the Knower (Jnatha). For, wisdom (jnana) is relevant only in the context of the human mind and human consciousness. It cannot be designated as the inquirer, because inquiry is the mark of the weak. It cannot be related to the intelligence, for intelligence discriminates, and the attempt to divide and dissect is again a sign of unsteadiness. 

 

It cannot be designated the Creator, for creation is the activity of the bound, the limited. It or He has no bonds or limits. Activity implies a wish, a want, a desire; it does not originate from any other cause. All work has as its base some inner pain that is sought to be alleviated.

 

In the Vedas, the Divine is spoken of only as THAT. The reference is always to THAT. The word “He” is susceptible of provoking ideas of difference, so the word THAT is used to indicate that it is free from all limitations and bonds imposed by the ascription of attributes. This is the essence of the philosophy of non-dualism, for attributes divide and distinguish.

 

Love.