Swami Krishnananda

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

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 36

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!!

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 35

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. 

 

If life started only yesterday, it cannot last beyond tomorrow. If the tree has roots, the roots shall go dry and it cannot survive forever. Life must have existed ever since the Cosmos has been in existence. It does not require argument to understand this truth. Do we not see that all modern sciences tend to confirm more and more assumingly and clearly the revelations made in the texts and scriptures of India? This too has to be accepted someday.

 

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.