The Real is ever-present, like
the screen on which the cinematographic pictures move. While the picture
appears on it, the screen remains invisible. Stop the picture, and the screen
will become clear. All thoughts and events are merely pictures moving on the
screen of Pure Consciousness, which alone is real.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Qualifications of the preceptor
This spiritual treasure can
be obtained from another too. However, the giver has to possess supreme
attainment, and the recipient has to possess the special merit that deserves
the achievement. The seed may have life in it, but the soil must be ploughed and
made fit to activate it. When both conditions are satisfied, the harvest of
spiritual success is assured.
One who instructs in the
field of religion has to be of enthralling excellence; the listener, also, has
to be of sharp and clear understanding. When both are surprisingly supreme and
extraordinarily enthusiastic, the result will be spiritual awakening of the
highest level. Otherwise, rarely can such results follow.
The real gurus steal your
hearts, not your wealth. The pupil has to concentrate on service to the guru
and ruminate over their teachings. The pupil must be eager to translate the
teaching into daily activity and actual practices. The pupil must fill the
heart with devotion and dedicate all their skill for the actualization of the
guru’s counsel. Such a person deserves the name pupil (sishya).
When the thirst for
liberation and the revelation of one’s reality is acute, a strange and
mysterious force in nature will begin operating. When the soil is ready, the
seed appears from somewhere! The spiritual guru will be alerted, and the thirst
will get quenched. The receiving individual has developed the power to attract
the giver of illumination. That power is strong and full. Therefore, naturally
the splendor that can confer illumination will get ready to bless.
Avatar: Guru of gurus
Readers! Though gurus of
the common type have increased in number, a guru is available for one who is
far more supreme and compassionate than any or all gurus. He is none other than
the Avatar of the Lord. He can, by the mere expression of His will, confer the
highest consummation of spiritual life. He can gift it and get one to accept
it. Even the meanest of the mean can acquire the highest wisdom, in a trice. He
is the guru of all gurus. He is the fullest embodiment of God as a human. A
person can cognize God only in human form.
This Indian (Bharathiya) Spiritual Stream has been
declaring, over and over again, that adoring God in human form is the highest
duty. Unless God incarnates as a person, people can never hope to see God or
listen to His voice.
Of course, one may picture
God in various other forms, but one can never approximate the genuine form of
God. However much one may try, one cannot picture God in any form except the
human.
People can pour out
wonderful discourses and talks on God and the nature and composition of all
that exists in the universe. They may satisfy themselves, asserting that all
accounts of God descending in human form are meaningless myths. That is what
the poor ordinary eye can discern. This strange inference is not based on
wisdom (jnana). As a matter of fact,
wisdom is absent in these assertions and declarations. What we can notice in
them is only the froth floating on ego waves.
Who am I?
Who am I (Koham)? Why do I feel that I am the
doer? What is the nature of consciousness that I am the enjoyer? Why be born
and die at last? How did I deserve this life? Can I be liberated from this
series of entrances and exits (samsara)?
The attempt to discover answers to these questions is what the sages (rishis) of old designated as
“austerities (tapas)”.
When the intellect of the
individual ripens into this steady inquiry, the individual enters the path of
spiritual exercise (tapas). This is
the first step. As soon as people have ascended this step, the scriptures — the
collective wisdom of seekers enshrined in sacred texts — welcome them. The
traditional revealed scripture (sruthi,
i.e. the Vedas) directs them to “listen, ruminate, and practise” the axiomatic
counsel of the sages. The sages assure them that they will attain the goal of
release and will free themselves from the delusive fascination for the visible
world, portrayed for them by their own minds. A proper guru is in
God-consciousness Only the Divine can be the guide, companion, and counselor on
this lone journey of a person. Those styled gurus cannot help or rescue.
The Vedas (Sruthis) advise people to approach gurus who are versed in the Vedas (are srotriyas) and in God consciousness (Brahma-nishtas). They warn people against resorting to others.
What does srotriya mean? It means a person who is
unquestioningly loyal to the Vedas and who adheres to the rules prescribed and
the limits imposed therein, without the slightest deviation.
Brahmanishta means a
person who is established in Brahma-consciousness. The person has no doubts to
pester them, no diversion to distract, for the person has won steady faith in Atma.
Continued....
Love.
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
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.
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.
We are a moving cosmic operation taking place, and really we do
not exist by ourselves.
But there is a kind of ego, an assertion of the individuality of
an otherwise mere floating bubble. The bubble is asserting its individuality,
which makes it feel that it is existing as a person; but it is not existing. It
is blown off by the operation of another force, and that blowing off is called
death. The force can blow another way, and it is called rebirth. Every action,
birth, death or experience is an operation of the centre of the cosmos. We do
not exist here. The ego, or ahamkara, is the reason why we understand
nothing. This great stigma on everyone will not allow us to think properly.
Therefore, you must seek deep meditation and expand your
consciousness to the existence of everything in the universe so that when you
think, you are thinking the whole universe at one stroke. You are not thinking
any particular place – neither a place, nor a country, nor anything. The entire
cosmic distance is yourself. In the Vaishvanara Vidya of the Upanishads it is
said that you enter the cosmos, and the cosmos enters you, so that you do not
exist at all. When you meditate, the cosmos meditates. The cosmos meditates on
itself like a river entering the ocean, and there is no river afterwards. When
the ocean thinks, it does not think like a river. The rivers are inside it.
Though all the rivers are inside the ocean, the ocean does not think, “I am so
many rivers.” It will not think like that. It thinks, “I am one mass of
existence.”
Swami Krishnanda
Chapter XIII
The Avatar as Guru
God: source of time, creation, activity
The cosmos or creation,
time, activity (karma) — all these
are manifestations of the will of God and are bound to Him. They are considered
by some as “false” and “unreal”, but how can God, who is the very embodiment of
truth (sathya), will anything not
true? Therefore, it can be said that these two are true, in one way. When
evolution changes over into involution and the ultimate stage of merging of
both the conscious and the unconscious is reached, God (Iswara) is the only One existent.
Time is the manifestation
of the power of God, so it has no measurable beginning or end. Activity (karma) is also an important truth to be
reckoned as such. God is no wayward force, unmindful of bounds and
limits.
He creates situations
and environments strictly according to the activities in which people engaged
during their previous lives. The creation, the time, and the action — all three
are true in God and true along with God. They are instruments that He uses.
They are bound to Him.
God (Iswara), though not ordinarily
perceptible to the senses, becomes so perceptible to the devotee who has such
deep attachment to Him that there is a yearning to merge in Him. Why? Such
devotees perceive God as clearly as they perceive external objects. God is said
to be formless; that is to say, He can assume or adopt any form. He has endless
forms. Then, in what form does He grant a clear vision to the devotee?
He manifests in the form
for which the devotee yearns, the form that will grant the highest
satisfaction. These forms are His Avatars. God doesn’t limit Himself when He
thus manifests; He is fully present in every such Avatar; He manifests Himself
with His full glory in every Avatar.
It is said that some
manifestations are partial and others full, that some are temporary and others
lasting. But these are called Avatars only by courtesy. Narada, Sanatkumara,
and other similar sages are referred to in some texts as such Avatars. They
don’t have all the divine characteristics, so they are not worshiped.
The individual soul (jiva) is by its very nature “eternal and
immortal”. It has no end or beginning that can be calculated. It has neither
birth nor death. It is self-illuminating. It is the knower and the knowledge,
the doer and the enjoyer.
Whether bound or
liberated, the individual soul has all these characteristics intact. But
whatever it is, it doesn’t have the freedom that God has. In every act, the
individual soul has to involve the body, the senses like the ear, and the vital
airs that operate in the body. All these coexist with the Divine in the
individual.
Whatever it is, the
individual soul is not a machine that has no will of its own. Just as the
activities in this life are determined by the nature of the activities in
previous lives, the activities of this life determine the activities of the
next life.
God (Iswara) decides the time and place, the
circumstance, and the consequence in accordance with the nature of the
activities presently undertaken. God has the power to shape the nature of
people, but He does not exercise that power and mould it differently. He leaves
it to the free will of the individual, which has to learn the lesson by
experience.
God, nature, and people
The flake of stone that
is chipped off the rock is a part of the rock, but the individual is not a part
of God like that. In one sense, the individual soul (jivi) and the cosmos (jagath)
are distinct and different from God. In another sense, they are
inseparable.
This mystery of
separateness and identity cannot be grasped by means of reason and intellect.
It can be understood only through the Vedas and their message. This is the main
lesson that this “Stream of Indian Spiritual Values (Bharathiya Paramaartha Vahini)” can instil.
Every child arrives in
the world bearing the burden of unrequited consequences accumulated in previous
lives. It does not drop from the lap of nature, as a streak of lightning from
the clouds. It is born in this world in order to experience the beneficial and
the malignant consequences that are the products of its own acts in past lives.
This is the explanation for the differences that are evident among people. This
is the principle of karma.
Each person is the cause
of their own fortune, good or bad. Each is themself the builder, the architect.
Fate, destiny, predetermination, the will of God — every one of these
explanations is toppled by the principle of karma.
God and people can be reconciled and affiliated only on the basis of this
principle of karma.
When one realizes that
God has no share in causing one’s suffering, that one is oneself the sole
cause, that no blame attaches to any other person, that one is the initiator as
the beneficiary — the cause and the effect— of one’s acts, that one is free to
shape one’s future, then one approaches God with a firmer step and a clearer
mind.
If a person is afflicted
by misfortune now, it is assuredly the result of their previous acts.
Accordingly, one has to believe that happiness and good fortune also lie in
one’s own hands. If one decides, happiness and good fortune can be gained.
A person who is pure in
spirit now is themself the cause. Without yearning, a person cannot earn. So,
it is clear that the will inherent in a person is beyond all stages and conditions,
all formations and transformations. The freedom that it represents is the
result of one’s past acts; it is powerful, infinitely fruitful, and supreme.
Love.
We will contemplate on
today’s glorious post when Avatar Himself speaks of an Avatar!!
Swami
continues,
"About the theory
of creation, we can arrive at two conclusions on which all sects of Hinduism
are agreed. The Buddhists and the Jains also accept these two. Every one of us
has the firm belief that life is eternal. It could not have originated from
nothing. That is impossible. If it had come out of inert slime or mud, it would
have been inert and inactive. All things put together will disintegrate. All
that is bound by time will end in time.
Triple texts of highest spirituality
As authoritative texts
of the basic beliefs of Indian culture in the spiritual field, the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutra, and the Bhagavad
Gita — the Three Sources (Prasthana
Thraya) — have to be reckoned.
Many in India feel that
only the doctrine of non-dualism (advaitha
Vedanta) is correct, but this attitude is not correct. The Upanishads are
the very voice of God. The Brahma Sutra
is the supreme embodiment of the principles and doctrine propounded by Vyasa;
it is the most important of the texts that depict philosophic doctrines.
It harmonizes the entire
body of philosophic beliefs; though it is based on earlier texts and
dissertations, there is no conflict between the earlier and later. In the
aphorisms of the Brahma Sutra, each
conclusion attains fulfilment and reconciliation. The Bhagavad Gita acts like a commentary provided by God, for Vedanta.
All sects of Hinduism
that claim to be authentic and orthodox accept the Three Sources as their basic
texts — whether they are dualists, qualified non-dualists, or non-dualists.
Whoever desired to propagate a new interpretation or a new attitude or theory —
Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhwacharya, Vallabhacharya, or Chaithanya — had to propagate
it through commentaries from that standpoint on only the Three Sources.
Therefore, to assert that Vedanta can
be used only with reference to the Upanishads
and the doctrines that they teach would be a great mistake.
All conclusions drawn
from the Three Sources are genuine and deserve the name Vedanta. Qualified non-dualism as well as dualism have as much
claim to be known as Vedanta as non-dualism.
This unity in diversity, this harmony of difference, is the core of the current
Indian (Bharathiya) thought.
There is milk in the
body of the cow. The milk has ghee (clarified butter) in it, but the cow cannot
derive any strength through it. The milk has to be taken out of the animal, it
has to be boiled, and a little sour curd has to be poured into it to curdle it.
After the milk is transformed into curds, it has to be churned, and the butter
has to be separated and rolled. Afterward, the butter has to be melted and
clarified to get the ghee. The ghee thus prepared can be fed to the cow, and
then it would be rendered stronger.
So too, consider: God is
omnipresent, but He isn’t amenable to people unless they do spiritual practice
(sadhana)."
Love.
Puranas, or lore of mythology
Now, about the Puranas. “The Puranas
deal with historical incidents, of creation and evolution (Puranam pranjali kshanam).” The incidents are chosen and narrated
to provide illustrations of basic philosophic truths.
The Puranas
were composed to expound the teachings of the Vedas and Vedanta to the common
person through interesting mythological and legendary tales. The language of
the Vedas is very ancient and contains many archaic elements of grammar and
vocabulary. Even great scholars find it difficult to discover the age when the
verses (riks) were formulated.
All the texts, scriptures, and holy
books referred to are grouped under the one comprehensive name “Hindu
Scriptures (sastras).” It is no
wonder that the people who revered and composed such a vast and valuable
literature of religion and philosophy over thousands of years were, in the
course of time, divided and subdivided into sects and subsets, which owed
preferential loyalty to special creeds and beliefs. Some of these had broad
gaps between them.
We have no time now to elaborate on the
fact that the differences between the sects are based on attitudes born out of
the freedom of thought that was authoritatively allowed by the ancients. Nor is
it necessary. What we have to grasp are: the truth accepted by all and the
attitudes approved by all, that is to say, the principles that a person calling
himself “Hindu” has to believe.
People are responsible for their fate
What exactly is the cause of creation?
What is the nature of the original substance that creation effected, and how
was it effected? These questions are important not only for Indians (Bharathiyas) but for all people prone to
inquiry. There can be no effect without a cause; there can be no structure
without a base.
Well. It can be asserted that all this
visible cosmos has Brahman as the
root cause, but what is Brahman? Brahman is eternal, pure, ever vigilant,
omniscient, indivisible, formless; Brahman
is the origin of this cosmos (jagath).
Brahman is shaping, evolving, and
fostering this cosmos.
Now, a few doubts might arise in
people’s minds: Why is so much partiality evident in creation? Some are born
healthy; others, unhealthy. Some lead prosperous carefree lives; others toil
throughout their lives in dire poverty. Certainly, it can be argued, there are
signs enough of the partiality that creation or the Creator reveals.
It must be made clear that life thrives
on death. Life is based on death: One living thing consumes another, to live.
The strong trample the weak. This tale of terror continues unceasingly. It is
the very nature of this world. Seeing this, people conclude that, if the world
was created by God, He should be cruelty itself. Such inference appears
justified from the ordinary person’s point of view.
But the pure stream of Indian spiritual
culture (Bharathiya Paramartha Vahini)
declares that this is not true at all! God is not the cause of either misery or
joy, of good fortune or bad, it announces.
Then who brings about evil and good? We
ourselves, is the answer. Rain falls equally on ploughed and unploughed land.
Only the ploughed land derives benefit from it. The clouds are not to blame.
The fault lies in the ignorant idler who lets the land lie fallow. The grace of
God is ever at hand, it has no “more or less”, no ups or downs. We draw upon
it, more or less, and use it for our good.
The question might arise: Why are some
born in happiness and some in misery? They have done neither good nor evil, to
be treated so unequally. True, they have done nothing in this life; they are
only just born. But they had done good or evil in previous lives. The
consequence of what was done in the previous life has to be experienced in this
life.
Essence
After describing about Puranas, Swami comes to the core essence which everyone must understand very well.
1)
Swami starts with the question, "What is thew cause of creation". In
many Upanishads, Vedantic treatise, Kapila's Sankhya yoga etc, this question
has been taken up and explained and there are too many contradictions or
differences in the theory of creation propounded by all of these.
2)
Swami answers and says, "There can be no effect without a cause; there can
be no structure without a base.
Well. It can be asserted that all this
visible cosmos has Brahman as the
root cause, but what is Brahman?
Brahman is eternal, pure,
ever vigilant, omniscient, indivisible, formless; Brahman is the origin of this cosmos (jagath). Brahman is
shaping, evolving, and fostering this cosmos."
3) Lord being leeladhari, He himself poses a question on behalf of human beings
and places so many facts which are quote ironical and they defame Brahman and gives an image of God/Brahman as non-compassionate, rather
cruel. What are all the points Swami, being Brahman
Himself, poses before us??
-Why is so much partiality evident in
creation?
-Some are born healthy; others,
unhealthy.
-Some lead prosperous carefree lives;
others toil throughout their lives in dire poverty.
-Life is based on death: One living
thing consumes another, to live.
-The strong trample the week. This tale
of terror continues unceasingly.
Seeing this, people conclude that, if
the world was created by God, He should be cruelty itself. "
Is it so??
Can the Lord, whom we adore and worship
as "Karuna Samudra, Prema Swarupa,
Prem Easwar Hai" etc. be cruel and create a world where there is so
much cruelty, so much imbalance between the Haves and the Have nots???.
Swami clarifies all the above doubts
from His (God's perspective and perspective of human beings).
From God's perspective
"Rain falls equally on ploughed
and unploughed land. Only the ploughed land derives benefit from it. The clouds
are not to blame. The fault lies in the ignorant idler who lets the land lie
fallow. The grace of God is ever at hand, it has no “more or less”, no ups or
downs. We draw upon it, more or less, and use it for our good."
Here, Swami clearly explains that God
can never be partial / cruel and His grace and Love is available to one and all,
without any Judging of their merits and demerits.
From Human perspective
"The question might arise: Why are
some born in happiness and some in misery? They have done neither good nor
evil, to be treated so unequally. True, they have done nothing in this life;
they are only just born. But they had done good or evil in previous
lives. The consequence of what was done in the previous life has to be
experienced in this life."
Here, Swami brings in the
Infallible theory of Karma and says, " AS YOU SOW, SO YOU REAP".
All our miseries or pleasure, all good
and bad experienced by us, are all the results of our past karma!!
Love.
