Swami Shivapadananada

Swami Shivapadananada

There's a stage when you take the Lord, singular, and meditate on him. Then it must [also] be in universal form - Vishwaroop. Your deity, whether it is Shiva, Kali, Krishna…because Krishna showed it practically. 

People only go for Krishna as a deity - but it's not just Krishna. [It's the same with] Any deity. First you meditate on the form. Then that form must be meditated on in universal form - Vishwaroop – and then it must become formless, nameless [Brahman]. Krishna gives you the three stages in the [Bhagavad] Gita. So that's how you reach the highest truth. 

First the formless, when the whole universe becomes God. You see it pulsating, then you find the universe has come out of something formless, nameless. It's not extracting anything but it's merging. Like a drop of water merges into the river and the river merges with the ocean. 

It's a wonderful meditation. Read between the lines in the scriptures and you'll see what I mean. Some people, when you tell them to meditate on the deity, they get so fed up [irritated], they think, "what this – this deity is not taking me any higher." 

But when you sit, inside here, you will know straight away, "no, it needs another step now, so it will push slowly." Until then, just get the intense yearning to know a little more truth and then the yearning will push you a little bit. 

Like Indra [king of the Hindu gods] came [to Prajapati] for the first time , Vairocana [king of the demons] came the first time. He made a mistake, He thought the body was everything. So he told his gang, "eat, drink and be merry." But Indra said, "wait a minute, that's not it, that doesn't die - this body dies." 

He came back to ask again. So intense yearning to know the truth [is essential]…and he came again…and each time he came to know a little bit more. Like that. I don't know how many times he came, three or four times or six times. And pushed and pushed until he got it. 

People make a mistake to think that ordinary people just touch and it happens like that. It won't happen. An Incarnation  will say, like Christ said, "behold!," and you could see it. Ramakrishna just touched – "wake up, Mother!" and the person got into samadhi [superconsciousness]. It can't happen to everybody. Others must go – pushing gear [working, struggling]

Essence of Vedanta - Part 24

Dear All,

Let us now proceed to the 2nd expression of THAT GOD, which is Jnanam.

Let us analyze the subject-object relationship in perception. When I see a flower, I (subject) am the body, including the eye. The flower is the object. Form and color of the flower are properties. When I want to judge the properties of the eye like myopia or color-blindness, I put one step back. The eye is the object. I, including the mind, is the subject. 

Extending this further, the real “I” is the ultimate subject, which can never become an object of perception by the senses or conception by the mind.  This ultimate subject is called Chit or Jnaanam.

In any subject-object relationship, properties always belong to the object. To judge the property of anything, it has to be given the status of an object. I need to extend myself to the edge of the instrument that is in contact with the object (internal or external) to experience and evaluate the properties of the object. Thus, I, the Chit, being the ultimate subject, cannot have any properties.

Applying the same logic that we applied to Sat, Chit also is One, Infinite, All-pervading, Eternal, Changeless, Partless, Property-less, Absolute Existence. So, Sat and Chit are not different. They are the same entity.

Thus, real I, the Consciousness is the fundamental entity from which the whole universe has emerged. This is conveyed in innumerable statements in the various Upanishads belonging to various Vedas. 

Love.

Essence of Vedanta - Part 23

Dear All,

In  the previous post (Part 22), we learnt about the God that is pure existence  which is pure knowledge and not knowledge of any object. 

Excerpts from previous post (Part 22) giving the above essence is reproduced below:-

• Vedanta extends this concept and says, “As long as properties are experienced, you have not reached the most fundamental level.” So, every property is only an emergent phenomenon. 
• At the ultimate fundamental level, Existence would necessarily be free from any properties. 
• As Sat does not have any properties, is has to be only one. Any change is only change of properties. So Sat has to be changeless. 
• So, Sat is One, Infinite, All-pervading, Eternal, Changeless, Partless, Property-less, Absolute Existence.

Let us learn more on God that is pure existence now.

In several ways we have been told in all upanishads  that whatever is there, finally, can be only a single Reality and it cannot be more than one. 

This concept was corroborated by a famous mantra that I quoted from the Rig Veda Samhita – ekam sat: "Existence is one only." The Ultimate Being is Existence. Being and Existence mean the same thing. That which exists cannot be more than one.

Everything has to exist, in some form or the other. Trees exist, stones exist, you exist, I exist, mountains exist, stars exist – all things exist. Existence is a common factor underlying every modification thereof as name and form. 

Whatever be the variety that is perceivable, all this variety is, at its root, an existence of something. Something has to exist, whatever that something be. The Real cannot be non-existent, because even the concept of non-existence would be impossible unless it is related to the existence of the concept itself. 

So the Upanishads say: "This Existence is:-

1. Supreme, 
2. Complete, 
3. Universal, 
4. All-pervading, 
5. The only Being. 
6. Birth less and hence, death less.

It is all-pervading and filling all space, very large in its extent, it is called Brahman. That which fills, That which swells, That which expands, That which is everywhere and is all things – That is the plenum, the completeness, the fullness of Reality.

As the author clearly mentioned in an earlier posts, all the above learning may sound as mere theory till the time one experiences and exists as the above.

So, what it means to a jiva who experiences the above state of pure existence??

When one attains God realization, he transcends his body conscience, mind conscience, intellect conscience, conscience of the world around him, conscience of God with form and with no mind, he transcends all thoughts (as Swami Says, Mind is a bundle of thoughts) and is it not true, can it not be understood at least at knowledge level that such state of a realized seer would be such that:-

- The state has no beginning, no cause.

- The state is all pervading, having transcended all objects in the world.

- The state is complete, as it is no more dependent on any object in the world. 

- The state is pure existence, exactly as the state of THAT GOD ( without form, without attributes) EXISTING PRIOR TO CREATION, EXISTING AS BEYOND CREATION EVEN WHEN THE CREATION EXISTS!!!!

This state can be experienced for a fraction of a minute only and only after intense meditation on the supreme, with absolute conviction to experience and realize the supreme and above all, ONLY WITH THE GRACE OF THE SUPREME GOD!!!

Hari Aum Tatsat.