Sandeha Nivarini - Post 15

Chapter IV. Awareness and its Lower Form

Devotee: Swami, last month You said something about awareness (chit), and You were pleased to say that You would explain more about it this month. Since then, I have been counting the passing days in order that I may know about it from You. The day has come at last. Please tell me about it.

Swami: Have you understood what has been told so far? Understanding does not mean mere mugging up! By practice and experience, have you realised in thought, word, and deed, and with full equanimity, the true nature of the world, that the world is unreal?

Devotee: It is only by understanding that, isn’t it, Swami, that one can be ever immersed in thoughts of Sai, the Lord, giving up all other activities and duties? Had I not understood that much, I would have wasted this precious time.

Swami: Good, my dear boy! How sad the farmer would be if the seeds he planted didn’t sprout and yield a harvest! So too, if the seeds of true wisdom that I sow do not come up as good saplings and give good harvest, I am affected. On the other hand, if they grow well and fructify into a harvest of bliss (ananda), how happy I am! That is My food. 

This is the selfless service (seva) you should do to me. There is nothing higher than this. Without flinging away the good and true words, spoken for your sake, if you practise them and derive joy from them, the essence of that joy is my food. 

If you thus act according to My words and put them into practice, I will gladly tell you more, whatever may be the number of things you ask. When what is said is allowed to deteriorate without being put into use, if people come and ask me to speak and speak again, what is to be said? If all start practising, as you are doing, the world will not have any troubles; untruth will not manifest itself.

Devotee: Swami! The Lord’s grace is the basic need in order to practise the divine words, just as for everything else. Without that, nothing can happen. It is ever present, as You said. Just as the Sun is hidden by fog, grace can be obstructed by the darkness of “I” and “mine”. But these can be overcome by practice and discipline. That is why, if we understand well the meaning of what we hear and follow, it is so easy. This is my experience; I don’t know of others.

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Devotee: Swami, we are like lumps of iron; the Lord is like the magnet. Both are related to each other. But if that lump of iron has to be changed into an article of use in God’s hands, it has to be heated in the fire of anxiety and beaten by the hammer of pain, so that it may obey and respond. So, in order to shape lumps of iron like us into instruments, You have to take much trouble. You have said that this is Your mission. Now, please tell me about awareness (chit), which you mentioned last month.

Swami: Yes. Awareness has another name: pure consciousness (suddha sathwa). It is as opposed to the impure consciousness as knowledge (vidya) is to ignorance (a-vidya). Impure consciousness is inherent in the pure as much as darkness is inherent in light.

Since many words are spoken, don’t get confused my dear boy! Knowledge-ignorance, wisdom-stupidity (jnana-ajnana), pure-impure consciousness —all indicate the same idea, not different ones. I shall ask you an- other question. Have you heard the word that is the opposite of “nature (prakriti)”? 

Continued......

Swami Turiyananda

Swami Turiyananda

Troubles exist as long as we live in the domain of thought. There is no peace until we transcend thought itself. When one kills the mind, the senses come under control. What does it mean to kill the mind? It is to detach it from sense objects. 

The enlightened person has their senses under perfect control. ‘The tortoise can draw in his legs: the seer can draw in his senses. I call him illumined.

Even a mind that knows the path can be dragged from the path; the senses are so unruly. But one who is wise controls the senses; the person recollects the mind and fixes it on God. I call such a person illumined. As long as one expects happiness, one stays restless. 

But the enlightened soul knows bliss in the Atman [the Self within] and wants nothing else. Cravings torment the heart; he renounces cravings. I call such a person illumined. Craving for happiness brings suffering in its wake.

The illumined soul keeps himself detached from the mind and intellect and directs them to work, whereas the ordinary person identifies himself with the mind and intellect.

- Swami Turiyananda