Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 5

Merging of the individual in the Total

 

One feels happy when one has the knowledge that this one little body is one’s own, right? Then, when one knows that two bodies belong to one, shouldn’t one be twice as happy? 

 

In the same way, with the knowledge that one has an increasing number of bodies, the experience of happiness goes on increasing. 

 

When the whole world is known to be one body and world consciousness becomes part of the awareness, then the bliss will be full. To get this multi-consciousness, the limited egocentric prison walls must be destroyed.

 

When the ego-self (or jivi) identifies itself with the divine Atma, death will cease. When the ego-self identifies itself and merges with the bliss of the One, sorrow will cease. 

 

When it merges with spiritual wisdom (jnana), error will cease. “Material individual ness is born out of delusion; this body, which creates that impression, is only an ever-evolving atom of a boundless ocean; the second entity in me is the other form, namely, the embodied Self; when the ego of mine merges with the divine Self in me, then the delusion disappears through the upsurge of its opposite, supreme knowledge.” When one’s thought matures in the process of time, undoubtedly all schools of thought have to reach this conclusion.

 

Introspection

 

Swami is giving us the highest vedantic truth today in the above part in 2nd chapter of this vahini.

 

Let us try to understand the merger of individual in total, the subject of today’s post from SS Vahini, in this way:

 

The terms Brahman and Atman are used interchangeably in the Upanishads and in the Gita and other scriptures. So, from one aspect they are synonyms.

The definition of Brahman is given in the Taittiriya Upanishad as:–

 

'That from whence all beings are born, that by which, when born, they exist, that into which they enter at their demise, seek to know that. That is Brahman.'

 

It further goes on to say that Brahman is qualified by SAT (Being), CHIT (Consciousness) and ANANTA (limitless) - some texts substitute ĀNANDA or Bliss for ananta - but both refer to the limitless divine love and bliss.

 

So, Brahman is the fabric or network of the Universe described a BEING - there is no before or after, up or down, in or out - THAT simply IS - time-space. Brahman is the Unified Field.

 

Consciousness pervades the Universe and is integral to the fabric of the Universe itself. Bliss, love – infinite and spacious is the very nature of Brahman.

 

Now the Atman is a mode, or moiety of Brahman known is Sanskrit as amsa. Each and every amsa of Brahman is qualified by the same three essential attributes but in a state conditioned by KARMA.

These are known as:–

 

asti — existence - limited by time, space and causation.

bhati – consciousness - defined by 

(1) perception, (2) cognition and (3) experience.

Priti or priya – love. Every living sentient being has love - firstly self-love - then love of partner, children, friends etc. in every expanding circle of inclusion. 

 

In less developed creatures it never goes beyond self-love and in the advanced stages of spiritual evolution love is inclusive of all sentient and insentient beings.

The external universe in which we exist is comprised of nama-rupa — name and form.

 

When the individual ego/Jiva, transcends the limitations of Asti, Bhati, Priya, as described above, then the limitation of the Jiva atman as an amsa is transcended and the amsa , jiva atman, merges with the whole, Parama atman or Brahman.

 

What are the limitations which a jiva has to transcend in order to merge with God/Universal consciousness??

 

1)   Limitation of time, space, objective (Asti)

2) Perception and experience based on objects (Bhati)

3) Love, based on individual, limited relationships (Priya)

Upon transcending the above three, one easily goes beyond the limitation of his name and form as well as names and forms of all others in the creation and the jiva merges with God, Atman merges in Brahman.

 

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 4

Chapter II

 From Truth to Truth

Questions may be asked, and doubts expressed by many about the state of a person after attaining fulfillment, the fullness of awareness. The person’s life will be saturated with unexcelled divine bliss (Ananda). The person will experience oneness of thought, emotion, and knowledge with all. 

The person will be in ecstasy, immersed in the One and Only, the eternal divine Principle, for that alone can confer joy during the process of living. Genuine joy is this and no other. God is the embodiment of eternal ever-full joy. 

Those loyal to Indian (Bharathiya) culture, whatever sect, or faith they claim as their special mold, accept this axiom: God is the highest source of joy. This conclusion (Matha) they accept as dearest and most pleasurable (Abhimatha).

 

Self is fullness and bliss is wholeness

Fullness means wholeness. Wholeness implies One and not two or three. There cannot then be any place for the individual. When an individualized Atma or soul (Jivi), the particularized differentiated self, has become whole and full, there is no possibility of its return to the consciousness of the objective world — such doubts may arise in the minds of many, but these doubts are not correct. 

When the individualized soul becomes fixed in the totality (Samashti), it loses all ideas of distinction and is ever in the consciousness of the totality, the One that subsumes the many. 

The person will then be aware that the Reality of each is the Reality of all and that that Reality is the One Indivisible Atma. The person will not exhibit any consciousness of distinction between individuals.

The Divine that it knows as the core of each “thing and being” is now recognized by it as the Divine that it itself is, so it will be deeper than ever in the fullness of bliss (Ananda). How can it then experience separateness? No, it cannot. 

The rays of that bliss illumine all religions. The sages and great wise people (rishis) became aware of the bliss. They communicated that experience to the world in easily understandable language. The unreachable moon is made known by pointing a finger in the direction where it can be seen! 

So too, they brought within the purview of people the truth that lies beyond the reach of mind and speech, according to the state of consciousness that each of them had attained. Their teachings were not only simple but varied to educate and elevate all levels of understanding.

Introspection

Ananda upon attainment of completeness / attaining self-realization, has been covered in many posts in the blog / in many satsangh talks in the youtube channel earlier.

Let us take up this “Ananda” as explained in Taittiriya Upanishad today, from the exposition given by Swami Krishnananda

1)              “To come in contact with any object for getting happiness, we have to forget what we really are and focus on the object. 

2)              This is atma-nasha, or destruction of selfhood, as it were, in a very significant manner so that, in every clinging to an object, there is a transference of ourselves to the particular object in which we are interested.

3)              Every kind of love, every type of attachment is a transference of oneself to another. 

4)              If a mother loves the child, the mother has gone; only the child is there. The consciousness of the mother has identified itself with the child's body in such an intense manner that she does not exist anymore. 

5)              This is the case with every kind of transference of consciousness to objects. 

6)              All our sorrows in life can be attributed to this peculiar trait in our consciousness to go outwardly—either positively as love, or negatively as hatred—in respect of certain things.

Now comes the question of love and happiness. 

How are we happy?

And how is it that when there is love for a particular object, happiness seems to manifest itself from within? 

This is mentioned in Taittiriya Upanishad when it discusses the nature of the innermost sheath in us, called the Anandamaya kosha.

7)              What makes us happy? When we come to the proximity of a loved object, we seem to be happy in our mind:  The nearer we come to it, the greater is the happiness we feel inside. The happiness that one feels at the proximity of the loved object is called the priya. 

8)             It is not the apex of happiness, because we have not possessed the object. But happiness increases when it is under our possession. 

But now comes the psychological feature. 

How is it that happiness arises at all? 

What do we mean by happiness? 

Can we define it? 

Is it a substance? 

Is it a thing? 

Is it an object? 

Is it material or non-material? 

Is it outside us or inside us? 

Or is it midway between the two? Where is it situated? 

9)             An analysis would make it clear that happiness is not in the object. If a particular object which attracts our attention is the source of happiness, then happiness should be really inside it, as a part of its nature. 

10)        Then, as the sun is shining for all equally and not merely for one person, the object concerned also should be a source of happiness to everyone in the world, if happiness is the real character of that object. But we will see on observation that this is not true.

11)        So, it is not true that the object is the source of happiness. 

In our study of the Aitareya Upanishad, we noted   that the Atman alone was; nothing else existed in the beginning. 

There is the selfhood in us, which is another name for the deepest non-externalisable consciousness. 

12)        Why does the mind move towards the object outside? Because it is not ours.  Our love for a thing is intense when it is not possessed by us. 

13)        The love that we feel is nothing but a movement of the mind towards the object for the purpose of grabbing it. 

But when we have already got it, where is the point in the mind moving towards it once again? So, the mind withdraws itself.

14)        The externalisation of the mind outside was for the purpose of grabbing the object of sense. But, when the purpose is served—when the object has come near us and we have got it—the mind need not think of it. 

15)        When the externalising force of the mind ceases on account of the satisfaction felt by the possession of the object, there is, for a fraction of a moment, a flash of the universality of our consciousness. 

16)        The mind ceases to think of the object because of having had the satisfaction of possessing it, and the cessation of the mind is the cessation of externality of consciousness. 

17)        The moment this cessation takes place, the non-externalised Self within us bursts out; and happiness is nothing but the experience of non-externalised consciousness. 

Thus, the happiness has come from us; it has not come from outside.”

If the exposition of this great sage seems difficult to understand and absorb, let us understand the same in simplest manner.

When a desired object is owned or attained, then for a fraction of seconds/minutes, mind withdraws from the external world and rests without any thought. At that moment, unknowingly, we are one with our true nature, the SELF. This oneness with our true SELF, for want of better expression at worldly level, is defined or explained as “Ananda”.

Now, from the inner most expression from source of an unnamed realized seer, a Jivanmukhta

“All these expressions, bliss or Ananda, are valid only for the human beings outside of me. To me, all these are not relevant. There is nothing outside me for me to experience it as “Joy” or “Ananda”. I just exist. I AM I”.

When Swami writes about the one who has realized SELF, "The person’s life will be saturated with unexcelled divine bliss (Ananda)." He is writing for the seekers to know about the state of a realized seer, not from the realized seer's side.

Continued….

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 3

Further extract from Sathya Sai Vahini, chapter 1

 

Vedas reveal the Supreme

“The Vedas are the authority for the faith of millions. They are the very words of God. The Hindus believe that the Vedas had no beginning and will have no end. In the Vedas, God speaks to humanity. They are not books written by authors. They are revelations, conferred by God on many inquirers, of the ways of earning the Supreme Goal. 

They existed before they were revealed as valid paths and will continue to be valid even if people forget the paths. They did not originate at any period of time, nor can they be effaced at some other time. The dharma (supreme law of conduct) that the Vedas allow us to glimpse is also without beginning or end, for it refers to the Supreme Goal.

The Supreme, according to the inheritors of Indian (Bharathiya) culture, is Vastness Itself. It rises to the high skies and roams free in that expanse. It was declared in clear terms long prior to the historical period. 

In India itself, many sects were born like mushrooms from out of the main faith. They tried to pluck by the roots or to cause mortal damage to the basic concept of Hinduism regarding the Reality, the Supreme. 

But, as in a terrific quake of land the waters of the sea recede only to return with thousand-fold fury, roaring back upon the shore it had seemed to quit, this stream of Indian (Bharathiya) wisdom was restored to its pristine glory when it rose above the confusions and conflicts of history. When the agitations subsided, it attracted the varied sects that distracted the mind of people and merged them into its expansive form. The Atma principle of the Indians is all embracing, all-revealing, all-explaining, and all-powerful.”

 

The Atmic principle of Love

“Developing faith in the Atma principle and loving it earnestly — this is the real worship. The Atma is the one and only Loved One for humanity. Feel that it is more lovable than any object here or hereafter — that is the true adoration one can offer to God. This is what the Vedas teach. 

The Vedas do not teach acceptance of a bundle of frightfully hard rules and restrictions; they do not hold before one a prison house where one is shut in by the bars of cause and effect. 

They teach us that there is One who is the sovereign behind all those rules and restrictions, One who is the core of each object, each unit of energy, each particle or atom, One under whose orders alone the five elements — ether, air, fire, water, earth — do operate. Love Him, adore Him, worship Him, say the Vedas. This is the grand philosophy of love as elaborated in the Vedas.

The supreme secret is: people must live in the world where they are born like the lotus leaf, which, though born in water, floats upon it without being affected or wetted by it. 

Of course, it is good to love and adore God with a view to gain some valuable fruit either here or hereafter, but since there is no fruit or object more valuable than God or more worthwhile than God, the Vedas advise us to love God with no touch of desire in our minds. Love, since you must love for love’s sake; love God, since whatever He can give is less than He Himself; love Him alone, with no other wish or demand. This is the supreme teaching of the Indians (Bharathiyas).”

Introspection

1)     Vedas are not man made, they do not have a set beginning in terms of time, nor do they have end.

2)    Vedas got transmitted from unknown preceptor to his disciple and from the disciple to the next generation of disciple and so on.

3)    The Supreme, as revealed by Vedas, is vastness itself, anantam or infinite.

4)    In spite of efforts by so many sects / cults which entered India and also efforts by various sects / religion / beliefs within Bharath itself to erase the teachings of our vedas, mother shruti faced all the challenges and remained unchanged, fearless.

5)    Swami re-defines devotion when He says, “Developing faith in the Atma principle and loving it earnestly — this is the real worship.”

6)    Swami reveals about the ONE truth that vedas reveals and Swami’s lines have to be re quoted as such as there can be no further explanation on His supreme lines. 

I quote Swami

“They teach us that there is One who is the sovereign behind all those rules and restrictions, One who is the core of each object, each unit of energy, each particle or atom, One under whose orders alone the five elements — ether, air, fire, water, earth — do operate. Love Him, adore Him, worship Him, say the Vedas. This is the grand philosophy of love as elaborated in the Vedas.”

7)     Revealing to us the need to Love God with no expectation in return, Swami says,

“Love, since you must love for love’s sake; love God, since whatever He can give is less than He Himself; love Him alone, with no other wish or demand.”

The above lines of Swami should stand etched in the core of our heart for our entire life.

As Swami says, “Here I am, descended on earth to give you liberation, as a kalpavriskha and you end up asking me for coffee powder”!!!!

What if we can get Swami/God Himself eternally, instead of just asking him for mundane things?

Should our heart not cry out to our beloved Lord, “I know you would give me anything that I seek, you have always been doing that for me, but O Lord, today, I seek nothing but you yourself. Merge in me or let me merge in you, never to return to this samsara as a limited jiva”?

 

Love.