Jnana Vahini - Post 19

Ignorance will never vanish until this discrimination dawns. "This world is but God and nothing else. Everything, every being is but His Manifestation, bearing within a new name and a new form" - Love this Truth, believe in it, and then you have the right to speak of Seva, Bhakthi and Dharma and the authority to preach on those paths. 

Vairagya or Non-attachment depends upon Jnana as well as Bhakthi. Deprive Vairagya of that basis and you will find it crumbling fast. Why, this is the prime cause for the want of spiritual progress at present. All these three have to be emphasized in Sadhana; they are not to be separated and striven for individually.

Bhakthi includes Jnana; if Vairagya (Detachment) is isolated from Bhakthi and Jnana, Jnana is isolated from Bhakthi and Vairagya; and Bhakthi is isolated from Vairagya and Jnana; each is ineffective. 

The best that each isolated path is capable of is to give some training in purity. Never therefore develop conceit and declare that you are Bhakthas or Jnanis or Vairagis (Recluses). 

Sadhakas must dip in the Triveni of Bhakthi-Jnana-Vairagya. There is no other way to salvation.

Before anything, be pure and holy. Of aspirants and Sadhakas, there are plenty; but of those who are pure in heart, the number is few. 

For example, observe this one fact: there are many who religiously read the Gita over and over again; there are many who expatiate on its meaning for hours and hours, but persons who practice the essence of the Gita are rare. 

They are now like gramophone records, reproducing someone else's song, incapable of singing themselves, ignorant of the joy of song. They are not Sadhakas at all. Their Sadhana does not deserve that name.

Life must be seen as the manifestation of the three Gunas, as a play of temperaments pulling the strings of dolls. This awareness must saturate every thought, word and deed. That is the Jnana you need. All else is Ajnana.

The Jnani will have no trace of hatred in him, he will love all beings; he will not be contaminated by the ego, he will act as he speaks. 

The Ajnani will identify himself with the gross body, senses and mind, things which are but tools and instruments. The eternal pure Atma is behind the mind, and so this mistake of the Ajnani plunges him into trouble, loss and misery.

All the names and forms that fill this universe and constitute its nature are but creations of the Mind. Therefore, the mind has to be controlled and its wayward fancies calmed in order to perceive the Truth. 

The ever-moving waves of the lake have to be stilled so that you can see the bottom clearly. So too, the waves of ignorance that ruffle the mind have to be stilled.

Love.

Jnana Vahini - Post 18

To realize that the self is beyond all these subordinate categories, Bhakthi is the first requisite. 

Bhakthi merges in Jnana and becomes identified with it. Bhakthi ripens into Jnana; so do not speak of them as different. At one state it is called Bhakthi, at a later stage we refer to it as Jnana. Once it is cane, later it is sugar.

Through Bhakthi, the Jiva is transformed into Siva, or rather, it knows it is Siva and the Jiva idea disappears. To posit oneself as Jiva, that is Ajnana; to know oneself as Siva, that is Jnana.

A white cloth that has become dirty, is dipped in water, cleaned with soap and warmed and beaten on a slab in order that it may be restored to its color and condition. 

So too, to remove the dirt of Ajnana that has attached itself to the pure Sath-Chit-Ananda Atma, the water of un-blemished conduct and behavior, the soap of Brahman-reflection, the warming of Japam and Dhyanam and the slab of Renunciation are all necessary. Then only can the fundamental Brahman-hood of the Atma shine forth.

It does not help if the soap is good when the water is soiled. All that soap and all that bother of heating and beating will be wasted, for the cloth will continue to be as dirty as before. 

This explains why many aspirants fail. Though they have meditated on Brahman for many years and studied about it for long, their modes of behavior and conduct are all wrong. The fault lies in the water, not in the soap! Their daily habits, acts and activities are mean and low; the Dhyana on Brahman is all wasted. 

A set of persons with curious ideas have cropped up recently and they strut about with great pride, for they have no yearning for God, even no use for God; they are Sevaks and they are satisfied with Service! 

But the essence of Seva is selflessness and abnegation of the fruit thereof; the Sevaks have no right to look down upon the godly and the Spiritual aspirants as inferior. For, that is but reaching for the fruit while neglecting the tree! Selfless service is the final fruit of the Godward Discipline. 

How can the fruit be gained without the long and laborious nurture of the tree? The very foundation of Nishkaama Karma is Prema towards all beings, Prema that seeks no reward. Without spiritual experience of this higher Love, selfless service is impossible.

How pure is the heart full of Bhakthi to God and Prema towards all things! Selfless Service is possible only by such; the rest only prattle about it and pretend to be impelled by it. Only those who are well established in the faith that all are children of God, that He is the Inner Motive Force of every being, can include themselves in that class of social servants.

Author’s note - In the last month’s sadan talk, while talking about SERVE ALL, we shared the following essence.

·         Service can start as a deliberate sadhana in the initial stage, to reduce our gross ego.

·         But, as much as the duality must go in devotion, in seva also, once the expansion of love happens, the duality between me who is serving and him who is served in camp/ in hospital etc. must go.

·         Only at this stage, when this line comes true in your state of existence, Seva is a happening, like the moon spreading its breeze is a happening, sun illumining the world is a happening, a mahatma serving all who come to him is a happening!!

·         We are not doing any Seva for the benefit of others. Seva is a manifestation of the expanded love that we exist as.

We can realize how much Swami’s words align with what we learnt that day. Swami says, “How pure is the heart full of Bhakthi to God and Prema towards all things! Selfless Service is possible only by such”.

Love.

Jnana Vahini - Post 17

Swami continues,

"A father with four sons cannot state that one of them has no right to a share in his property. It won't be just or proper. Then what shall be said of the Lord, who is devoid of the slightest tinge of partiality or prejudice and who is full of mercy? To attribute favoritism to Him is to commit sacrilege.

Referring to this question of who is entitled and who is not entitled to Brahma vidya, Krishna said in the Gita "I have no favorite, nor do I dislike anyone. Whatever might be the case, whether the person is man or woman, whoever worships Me with faith and devotion will reach Me, nothing can stand in their way. I too will manifest in the hearts of such". Is the Gita, therefore, meaningless? No, the Gita speaks profound Truth.

There is another wrong belief current today. It is said that in order to be entitled to the practice of the Sadhana for the realization of Brahman, like Japa and Dhyana, one must adhere strictly to certain modes of daily conduct laid down in tradition and thus attain purity. 

To say that a person must be pure and good and follow certain codes of conduct before he can tread the path of God is to say that he must be free from disease in order to deserve medical treatment! This is absurd. Purity, goodness etc., are all the consequences of the journey towards God; they cannot be insisted upon as essential for just starting upon it. 

The taking in of the drug will gradually induce health and cheer; health and cheer should not be insisted upon before the drug is even prescribed or supplied! This obvious fact is ignored by many; that is a serious malady indeed!

(Author’s note - What Swami means perhaps is that we need not postpone our sadhana thinking that we are at a lower level and we have to go a long way before being able to taste / have a glimpse of Jnana. The self-purification process and the study of scriptures / taking up the path of jnana can go together, simultaneously)

The inference is that what is important is constant meditation on the Lord, not the labels of caste or creed. Jnana is the attainment of the feeling of Oneness, the realization that there is nothing high or low. That is the true Divine Principle, the Brahman.

A sugar doll has head, neck, arms and limbs, but each part is as sweet as the other. From head to foot, it is one uniform sweetness; there cannot be two types of sweetness. That is why it is said to be not dual but non-dual, not Dvaitha but Advaitha. Those who emanate from the Lord's Face and those who emanate from His Feet are both His children. The realization of this Truth is the sign of Jnana.

(Author’s note - Purusha suktam starts with this verse which aligns with what Swami writes at the end.

OM SAHASRA SIRSHA PURUSHAHA SAHASRAKSHAH SAHASRAPAAT!

SA BHUMIM VISHVATO VRITVA ATYATISHTHAT DASHANGULAM!

"The Lord Vishnu residing in everybody (as antaryami) possesses thousands of heads, thousands of eyes and thousands of legs. He has pervaded everywhere and is Infinitely Superior even to Goddess Lakshmi who is the presiding deity of earth".

The Suktha begins with the affirmation that all the heads, all the eyes, and all the feet in creation are of the Purusha. 

Herein is implied the astonishing truth that we do not see many things, bodies, objects, persons, forms, or colors, or hear sounds, but rather only the limbs of the One Purusha. 

And, just as when we behold the hand, leg, ear or nose of a person as various parts we do not think that we are seeing many things but only a single person in front of us, and we develop no separate attitude whatsoever in regard to the various parts of the person’s body — because here our attitude is one of a single whole of consciousness beholding one complete person irrespective of the limbs or the parts of which the person may be the composite — in the same manner, we are to behold creation not as a conglomeration of discrete persons and things with which we have to develop a different attitude or conduct, but as a single Universal Person who gloriously shines before us and gazes at us through all the eyes, nods before us through all the heads, smiles through all the lips and speaks through all the tongues. This is the Purusha of the Purusha Sukta.)

Love.