Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 22

 Chapter IX. 

One with the One 

 

“The cosmos (jagath) was created by God out of Himself, so He is the originator as well as the material of the cosmos. As a result, He is full (paripurna). Creation is also full, as is the individual Atma. Therefore, many full entities are postulated. God made the cosmos manifest from Himself. 

 

When this declaration is made, the doubt may naturally arise: How could God become these walls, these tables? Here is another doubt that comes uppermost to some: God is supremely pure, so how could He become these impure things?

 

Humanity is fundamentally divine

Let us seek the answers. People are fundamentally Atma but they have the encasement of a body, right? From one point of view, a person is not distinct from the body, yes? 

In spite of this, however, one feels that one is not this body, that one’s reality is distinct from it, that one is not the baby one was, or the old man one is, that one is neither male nor female, and that one persists through babyhood, boyhood, middle age, and old age, masculinity and femininity, and all the other stages and changes. 

So too, the cosmos and all creation are but the billion bodies of God. He is all this and in all this, but He is changeless and eternal.

 

Nature is amenable to change. The Atma can also contract or expand, blossom or fade, shine or be befogged. Bad deeds will diminish its splendour by clouding its brilliance. Its innate and genuine truth and wisdom may be hidden by evil thoughts and deeds. Acts and practices that can disclose the native splendour and glory of the Atma are termed “good”.

Three schools of Vedanta

The Atma is “unbound” at first; but later it is seen as limited and restricted. Through good deeds and activities, it resumes its vastness and boundlessness. Everyone, without any difference, has the opportunity to achieve this transformation. When the time gets ripe, everyone can succeed in this and liberate themself from the bonds and bondage. But the cosmos (jagath) will not end. It is eternal, incapable of being destroyed. This is the explanation of the second school of philosophy in India.

The first school of philosophy is dualism (dwaitha). The dualists posit that the cosmos is a vast machine designed and operated by God. 

The second school is qualified non-dualism (visishta-adwaitha). This second, higher, stage in spiritual enquiry and experience posits three entities —God, the Atma, and nature— and speaks of an integration of the three. The qualified non-dualists declare that the cosmos is a phenomenon that is interpenetrated and imbued with the Divine. 

The third school, non-dualism (adwaitha), asserts that God is not outside the cosmos, that He became the cosmos, and that He is all that is. There is nothing except God, no other, no second. This truth has to be accepted by all. This is the highest truth.

To say that God is the Atma and the cosmos is like the body in which He operates and lives is not correct. To assert that the Atma (God) is eternal and changeless but the cosmos that is His body can be subject to change and transformation is also not satisfying.

What does it signify when it is said, “God is the proximate cause (upadana-karana) of the cosmos”? Proximate cause means the cause that produced the effect. The “effect” is the “cause” in another form. It cannot be separate from the cause. Every effect that we notice is but the cause that has assumed a new form. 

The cosmos is the effect, God is the cause — these statements stress only the fact that the cosmos is but God in another form. To the argument that the body is limited and subtle and that it leads one to the cause (God), or it was from God that it evolved and took shape, the non-dualists would reply that it was God Himself who manifested in the form of the cosmos.

Integral unity of God, nature, and humans

It may be doubted that all this multiplicity of things and beings are really God. Yes — it is the truth. All these that the senses cognize, that come into the awareness, are God. There is nothing else but He. Our bodies, minds, intellects, consciousness —all are God.

Here, another doubt may arise. Why should God be so many individualized beings? Why should He be so many souls (jivatmas)? Will God, who is of one Form, manifest Himself as so many? How did this happen? If God had transformed Himself into the cosmos, He should have subjected Himself to change; all things in nature that are by their very composition subject to change suffer both birth and death. 

And, if God has come within the precincts of change, does it mean that He too has to die some day? Does he have to undergo change and ultimately end? Keep in mind this point also. Then, there is another point to be considered. How much of God, what portion of God becomes the cosmos?

The non-dualists say the following. Whatever portion you may allot, or guess, remember this: The cosmos does not exist. It is an illusion. It never is, has been, or will be. The creation of the cosmos, the dissolution of the cosmos, these billions of individuals emerging and merging, all this is but a dream. 

There is no individualised soul (Atma) at all, no separated Atma. How can there be billions of souls? There is only ONE indivisible complete Absolute. Like the one sun reflected as a billion suns in a billion lakes, ponds, and drops of water, the souls are but reflections of the One in the minds on which it shines. This is what Indian (Bharathiya) thought emphasizes most clearly through the non-dualist thinkers. Those who cannot grasp this truth are under the influence of delusion (maya), it can be said.

Cosmos, the dream of God

Dreams also have to be based on reality. Without a basic reality, the “dependent idea or fact” cannot exist. Without a basic thing, subsequent things cannot emanate. Without a basic being, subsequent beings cannot mani- fest. That base is God (Iswara). He is full; He is the mind, the body, the Atma. You are only as real as a dream. For the eye that can see reality, the cosmos is not this multiplicity of name and form, but mere being-awareness-bliss (satchidananda). 

 

Just think of your dream. It does not arise from somewhere outside you, nor do the varied images and activities disappear into some place outside you. They arise in you and disappear into you. While dreaming, you consider the events and persons as real, and you experience, as really as in the waking stage, the feelings of grief, delight, fear, anxiety, and joy. You don’t dismiss them at the time as illusory.

 

The cosmos is the dream of God; it arises in Him and merges in Him. It is the product of His mind. These lives and repeated arrivals are all fanciful weavings of delusion (maya), unreal fantasies, illusory agitations, un- real appearances. You are the Full, you are God. God is you. Those who have experienced this highest wisdom can attain oneness with the ONE, here and now.”

 

We will contemplate on today’s part of the SSV, in the next post.

 

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 21

 

 

Solar and lunar paths of liberation

 

We cannot think without words; words are the essential material for thought. When the individual drops the body, the words enter the mind, the mind enters the life force (prana), and the life force merges in the Atma. 

 

The embodied soul (jivatma), when it liberates itself, rushes to the region of the solar principle (the surya-loka). From there, it reaches the region of Brahma (the Brahma-loka). Having reached that region, the individualized Atma has no more concern with nature (prakriti). It will exist there till the end of time. It will experience boundless delight. It will have all powers except the powers of creation.

 

The authority to rule over the cosmos is exclusive to God. God is free from desires of all varieties. One’s duty is but to offer Him love and to worship Him through love. This raises one to the highest status among beings.

 

Those who are unaware of this status or are incapable of discharging their responsibilities belong to other categories. They also offer and worship; they also engage themselves in beneficial activity. But they crave the fruits they hope to gain; they perform acts motivated by a desire to benefit from the results that emerge therefrom. 

 

“We have helped the helpless, so our path will be smooth and safe.  We have uplifted the downtrodden, so we can avoid troubles on our road. We have busied ourselves in singing the Lord’s Glory in chorus, so we are sure of Heaven.” These are the calculations of people of this nature who engage themselves in “good acts”.

 

When such people give up their bodies, that is to say, when such people die, their words will merge in their minds, their minds will merge in their life force, the life force thereafter will merge in the soul (jivi), and the soul will travel to the region of the moon principle (chandra-loka), that is to say, the world (loka) of the presiding deity of the mind — suggesting that they have to enter again the realm of the mind, with all its agitations and turmoil of wants and wishes. 

 

In this region, such souls experience some satisfaction and delight as long as the consequence of the good acts lasts. That is why the scriptures say, “When the acquired merit is spent, they reenter the world of mortal people (Ksheene punye, marthya lokam visanthi)”. The soul encases itself in a body equipped with sense organs, etc. appropriate to the earned consequences of the deeds of the previous body and starts another life career.

 

Heaven and Hell

 

The residence of the soul in the world of the moon is what the Hindus refer to as the time spent as a god (deva) in Heaven, or as an angel according to Christian and Islamic religions. The name Devendra, given to the Lord of these devas, is an indication of a position of authority. Thousands have risen to that position.

 

According to the Vedas, when the highest good is observed, that person is elevated to the position of Devendra-hood. The soul raised previously to that position will descend to the earth and resume its career in human form. Just as on earth monarchs change, so in Heaven rulers cannot escape rise and fall. The residents of Heaven are also subject to the law of ups and downs. Only the region of Brahma is free from birth and death, rise and fall, ups and downs. This is the basic doctrine of Indian thought, its eternal nectar, administered to humanity.

 

When the individual soul is as a god (deva) in the region of the moon, it cannot manifest any karma. Only humanity can express itself through action (karma) that binds by its consequence. Karma means activity undertaken with desire, with an eye on the result. 

 

When the soul is in the region of the moon as a god, it is content and satisfied, so it will not crave activity for earning pleasure or achieving some success. Residence in that world is the reward the soul has secured for good deeds done by it in the past, or it may be the prize won for such goodness. When the delight emanating from the good deeds is experienced and spent away, the balance of the consequence accumulated has to be suffered, so the soul has to come as a person on earth. 

 

Then, attaining the highest good and engaging in acts of highest potency for merit, the person can cleanse the heart and reach the world of Brahma (Brahma-loka), whence there no is coming back.

 

Non-dualism posits neither Heaven nor Hell

 

The word Hell (naraka) cannot be found in the Vedas. The conception of Hell is foreign to the spiritual thought of the Indians (Bharathiyas). The idea of Hell and the various descriptions of Hell are all later additions in the scriptures (sastras) and ancient tales (Puranas). The authors of these texts believed that religion would be incomplete if it did not posit Hell. They laid down diverse tortures as part of Hell, but they laid down one limitation to the pain Hell inflicts. They declared that there can be no death in Hell. Hell was created only to incite fear among people, in order to make them desist from sin.

 

But non-dualism (adwaitha) does not posit Heaven or Hell. It is concerned only with bondage and liberation, ignorance and illumination. It is known as Vedanta. There is no faith higher than what Vedanta stands for.

 

Essence

 

Swami reveals the difference between those who have exhausted their karma and have got liberated and those who continue to lead a life of desires and still have accumulated karmas 

 

Those who are liberated, says, Swami, “The embodied soul (jivatma), when it liberates itself, rushes to the region of the solar principle (the surya-loka). From there, it reaches the region of Brahma (the Brahma-loka). Having reached that region, the individualized Atma has no more concern with nature (prakriti). It will exist there till the end of time. It will experience boundless delight. It will have all powers except the powers of creation”

 

About  those who have desires, undertake activities with expectation of fruits/benefits, says Swami, “When such people give up their bodies, that is to say, when such people die, their words will merge in their minds, their minds will merge in their life force, the life force thereafter will merge in the soul (jivi), and the soul will travel to the region of the moon principle (chandra-loka), that is to say, the world (loka) of the presiding deity of the mind — suggesting that they have to enter again the realm of the mind, with all its agitations and turmoil of wants and wishes. 

 

After dealing briefly about Hell and heaven, Swami says, “Non-dualism (advaitha) does not posit Heaven or Hell. It is concerned only with bondage and liberation, ignorance, and illumination. It is known as Vedanta. There is no faith higher than what Vedanta stands for”

 

Why and how? Because, in advaita Vedanta, a Jiva is not recognized as an embodied person but as Jivatman, the pure SELF.

 

For the pure SELF, there is no papa or punya, there is no hell or heaven.

 

Love.

 

Sri Krishnananda

The nature of the experience of space and time depends upon the manner in which the consciousness happens to be objectively modalised. Persons who are in a depressed state of mind or who are in deep sorrow are apt to feel that, a moment of time is like a year, while those who revel in happiness would feel contrary. Space and time are ultimately conditions of consciousness and are not independent of it. In the dreaming state, experiences ranging over thousands of years can be undergone in a moment's time, while at the same time, the mind in this state can also project a moment's experience into a history of several years. In the state of intense spiritual contemplation and Samadhi, space and time are transcended, and only pure consciousness reveals itself. In this consciousness, the entire universal cycle is said to appear and disappear within the millionth part of a moment.

Swami Krishnananda

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 20

 

Chapter VIII

 

Bondage

 

People can discard as many gross bodies in which they take temporary residence as the number of times they pare their nails. But the subtle body cannot be changed; it lasts and persists. This is the most secret doctrine of Indian spiritual thought. Going further along this line of discovery, it can be revealed that person means: a complex of the gross body, subtle body, and individual soul (jivi). Vedantic philosophy would declare that the individual soul shares the quality of eternal, unchanging, everlastingness (nithya).

The objective world (prakriti) is also eternal, but with a difference: it undergoes perpetual change. It is never the same, but it persists forever. The basis for the objective world, namely the life force (prana) and space (akasa), are eternal, but they act and interact without rest and manifest variously and manifold.

 

The individual Atma (the jivatma) did not have its origin in either space or the life force; it is not material in nature. It is eternal, without change. It did not happen through the impact of the life force on space or space on the life force. Things brought together will disintegrate.

 

But things that are themselves ab initio cannot so come apart. For, disintegration means resuming the original nature, becoming what it originally was, reducing itself to its native substance.

 

The gross body is the result of the combination of the life force and space, so it dissolves itself into its components. The subtle body also dissolves, but only after a long long time.

 

The embodied soul (jivi) is not brought together, so it cannot fall apart. It has no birth. It cannot be born. A unitive part-less being can have no moment of origin.

 

The objective world, consisting of billions of varied things, forces, and events, is governed by the will of God. God is all-knowing, all-penetrating, all-pervading; He is activating the objective world and acting through the objective world all the time. Creation is ever in His care. His sovereignty is beginning less and endless. This is the doctrine of the dualists (dwaithins).

 Ignorance, the source of evil

 

This gives room for a question. When the world is ruled by God, how does He permit it to be so wicked and evil? The answer given is that God is not responsible for the grief and pain.

 

The sins we commit are the progenitors of the grief we suffer. Joy and sorrow are the consequences of the good and evil that people perpetrate.

 

God is the Witness. He doesn’t punish or cause grief. The embodied soul (jivi) is beginning less, that is to say, has no birth, but it involves itself in incessant activity and thus has to go through the inevitable consequences of that activity. This is the experience of everyone, the characteristic of everyone’s mind. This is the unbreakable law of the objective world.

 

Grief or joy is the image of the activity in which one engages. It is the resound, the reflection, the reaction. The individual soul can be the witness without concerning itself with the good and bad of the activity. When involvement happens, good has to be experienced when good is done; evil, when evil is done.

 

Vedanta asserts that the individual soul is, by its very nature, pure and unblemished. This is the accepted doctrine, according to Indian (Bharathiya) thought. But this truth has been befogged by ignorance and neglect, so illusion (maya) pollutes the experience, and the shade of ignorance breeds evil.

 

But when beneficial activity is engaged in, the clouds of illusion are scattered and the reality of the Self is realized. All beings, all souls (jivis) are pure, by their very nature. Good acts can remove the taints of evil deeds and preserve this essential purity. Then, the soul is led into the Godward path. The Godward urge will transform the thoughts, words, and deeds of the individual.

 

Essence

1)               In the first part of today’s post, Swami describes and reveals that the gross body and the subtle body are bound to perish, though the subtle body takes longer time to perish

2)             However, the Soul /Atman is beginning less and therefore endless.

3)             Then Swami touches upon the belief that Easwara is the creator and sustainer of this creation and everything is as per His will, as per one of the Hindu Philosophy.

Swami writes, “The objective world, consisting of billions of varied things, forces, and events, is governed by the will of God. God is all-knowing, all-penetrating, all-pervading;

In one of the speeches, a monk of Rama Krishna Parama Hamsa ashram says, “In Christianity, In Islam in few other religion, it is stated that God watches and punishes the sinners, God even dissolves the creation . On one hand, we say God is ever merciful and on the other hand, we imagine Him as a harsh force, punishing the sinners. Is this not contradictory”?

4) Swami is bringing the same thought here in today’s post. God is ever compassionate and can never punish anyone for their mistakes, howsoever grave the mistakes are. If this is so, then why the world is so cruel? Why there is so much pain and sorrow in this world created by God?

Swami answers, “The sins we commit are the progenitors of the grief we suffer. Joy and sorrow are the consequences of the good and evil that people perpetrate”.

Swami’s statement unveils and reveals us the indisputable theory of Karma, which we Hindus, believing in rebirth, do and must accept without any doubt.

Is there any end to this continuous vicious cycle of Death-Rebirth-Death, for undergoing the results of our deeds?

5) Swami’s words come to us , soothing our heart and soul, like the breezy air that flows and cools us within. Swami says, “when beneficial activity is engaged in, the clouds of illusion are scattered and the reality of the Self is realized. All beings, all souls (jivis) are pure, by their very nature.

Good acts can remove the taints of evil deeds and preserve this essential purity. Then, the soul is led into the Godward path. The Godward urge will transform the thoughts, words, and deeds of the individual.

 

Love.

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 19

Swami writes,

 

Gross and subtle bodies

 

The body is composed of cells, which are made up of atoms. The atoms are also physical phenomena. They are fundamentally inert matter (jada), composite and unfeeling. The Vedanthins speak of a subtle body, separate from this gross body. That too is physical. It is the centre of subtle skills and force. It is in this body that all the subtle mental feelings and agitations take place. Each force can work only through some medium or other, which is physical. 

The same power that operates the gross body works through the subtle processes of thought. They are not two different entities. One is the subtle form of the other, that is all.

What is the source of these powers? If we delve deep, we will find that there are two things in nature: space (akasa) and the life force (prana). Space is the source of all the gross and subtle material one encounters; when the life force contacts it, due to the impact the space principle transforms itself into either gross or subtle, in varying proportions.

The life force is omnipresent, like space. It can also penetrate everywhere and everything. Like the blocks of ice that water becomes and that float and move about on water, the life force acts on space and bodies appear. 

The life force is the force that moulds the space into various forms. The gross body is the vehicle of the life force that it has shaped out of space. The subtle body is of the form of thought, feeling, etc.

When the subtle body is transcended, the awareness of the Reality becomes manifest. Just as fingernails persist as part of our gross body, however often we pare them, so too the subtle body is an integral part of one’s makeup.

 

Introspection

 

Just now the author finishes one line on the next hanuman chalisa talk coming up on 8th Feb wherein, he hurriedly writes what emerges from within. He is mentioning the essence of  what came from within which he noted down for that talk- “ One may argue that Prana or Life force enlivens mind/senses etc. but can the life force bestow “awareness” or “knowing “ or “feeling”?? It is the consciousness / pure awareness that lends itself to enliven life force and through that, the mind, senses and due to this borrowed “awareness”, mind /senses can be “aware”.

Believe him  brothers and sisters, there was absolutely no plan of picking up the enxt part of SSV for writing the post today but somehow the author picks up and just read what Swami has written about the life force above and what is Swami’s last line in today’s SSV part?

“When the subtle body is transcended, the awareness of the Reality becomes manifest.”

Author swears, this is much more than a mere coincidence. Swami proves that it is He who gives the intuitive thoughts for each talk/session by giving the same thought w.r.t. to the upcoming hanuman chalisa talk and giving the same in the SSV part today.

It is overwhelming. The thought which came up related to the upcoming talk, came just 5 minutes before, he notes it down and then opens the SSV part to take up for the current post and Swami  talks about the same “ life force” and then the need to transcend the life force, the subtle body, to “KNOW” the reality (Consciousness)!!

Swami has talked about Gross and subtle body in today’s post.

Let us read what the sage from Ananda Kutir writes about the three bodies, in the form of a question answer session between a disciple and his master.

 

"The Three Bodies & their Enumeration

 

(The individual experiencer is a consciousness-centre enveloped by several layers of matter existing as the factors causing objective awareness in it. The analysis of these layers or bodies is necessary to ascertain the nature of the true Self.)

 

Hari Om. Om Sat-Guru-Paramatmane Namah.

 

Disciple: How many bodies are there in an individual (Jiva)?

 

Guru: There are three bodies in every individual (Jiva).

 

Disciple: Please name them.

 

Guru: The physical body or the gross body (Sthula Sarira), the astral body or the subtle body (Sukshma Sarira or Lingadeha) and the causal body or the seed body (Karanasarira) are the three bodies.

 

Disciple: Please illustrate them.

 

Guru: The shell of a tamarind corresponds to the physical body. The pulp represents the subtle body. The seed corresponds to the causal body. Ice represents the physical body. H2O represents the subtle body. The Tanmatras or root-elements correspond to the causal body.

The Gross Body

 

Disciple: What are the components of the physical body?

 

Guru: The physical body is composed of five elements, viz., earth (Prithivi), water (Apah), fire (Tejas), air (Vayu) and space (Akasa).

 

Disciple: What are the seven primary essences (Sapta-Dhatus) of the physical body?

 

Guru: Chyle (Rasa), blood (Asra), flesh (Mamsa), fat (Medas), bone (Asthi), marrow (Majja) and semen (Sukla), are the seven primary essences of the physical body.

 

Disciple: What are the Shad-bhava-vikaras (six modifications of the body)?

 

Guru: Asti (existence), Jayate (birth), Vardhate (growth), Viparinamate (change), Apaksheeyate (decay), Vinashyate (death), are the six modifications or changes of the body.

 

Disciple: What are the links with which the body is connected?

 

Guru: The body (Deha), action (Karma), love and hate (Raga-dvesha), egoism (Ahamkara), non-discrimination (Aviveka) and ignorance (Ajnana) are the seven links of the chain of Samsara (world-experience). From Ajnana (ignorance), Aviveka is born. 

 

Aviveka is non-discrimination between the real and the unreal. From Aviveka is born Ahamkara or egoism; from egoism is born Raga-dvesha (like and dislike); from Raga-dvesha Karma (action) arises; from Karma the body or the Deha is produced. 

 

If you want to free yourself from the pain of birth and death, destroy ignorance (Ajnana), the root cause of this Samsara (world-experience), through the attainment of the Knowledge of Brahman or the Absolute. 

 

When ignorance is removed, all the other links will be broken by themselves. This physical body of yours is the result of your past actions and is the seat of your enjoyment of pleasure and pain.

 

Disciple: Why is the body called Sarira or Deha?

 

Guru: Because the body decays (Sheeryate) on account of old age, it is called Sarira. Because it is cremated or burnt (Dahyate) it is called Deha.

 

The Subtle Body

 

Disciple: What is the composition of the subtle body?

 

Guru: The subtle body is composed of nineteen principles (Tattvas), viz., five Jnana Indriyas or organs of knowledge, five Karma Indriyas or organs of action, five Pranas or vital airs, Manas or mind, Buddhi or intellect, Chitta or the subconscious and Ahamkara or the ego. It is a means of enjoying pleasure and pain.

 

Disciple: When will this subtle body get dissolved?

 

Guru: It gets dissolved in Videha Mukti or disembodied Liberation.

 

The Causal Body

 

Disciple: What is the causal body (Karana Sarira)?

 

Guru: The beginning less ignorance that is indescribable is called the causal body. It is the cause of the gross and the subtle bodies.

Disciple: How can I transcend the three bodies?

 

Guru: Identify yourself with the All-pervading, Eternal Atman. Stand as a witness (Sakshi) of all experiences. Know that the Atman is always like a king - distinct from the body, organs, vital breaths, mind, intellect, ego and Prakriti - the Witness of their attributes.

 

Love.