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Sitting at the feet of the great
disciples of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, the religion that we learnt taught us
not to be egocentric, but to be dedicated to the service of the Lord in man.
Some words of Swami Vivekananda come to my mind always. From America he
wrote, and these were also the last lines in his reply to the Madras
address, `First let us ourselves be gods and then help others to be gods.'
Swamiji put this idea before us in another form: each one of us should lead
our life in such a way, that we attain to our spiritual realisation, freed
from all bonds. Not only that, we must also be able to promote the welfare
of others. The ideal is, that in the innermost core of our being, we have to
realise the God-head; again, we have to experience Him as manifest in all.
Out of this realisation of his have come into existence all the various
forms of service of the Ramakrishna Movement: Medical Service, Educational
Service, Preaching and Publication. The ideal is to serve the Divine in
others. Just as we ourselves try to be free we should also try to help
others to be free.
I would like to read to you some
passages from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
A Devotee: "Sir, is it necessary to
have a Guru?"
Master: "Yes, many need a Guru. But a
man must have faith in the Guru's words ...
"One should constantly repeat the name
of God. The name of God is highly effective in the Kaliyuga. The practice of
Yoga is not possible in this age, for the life of man depends on food. Clap
your hands while repeating God's name, and the birds of your sin will fly
away.
"One should always seek the company of
holy men. The nearer you approach the Ganges, the cooler the breeze will
feel. Again, the nearer you go to a fire, the hotter the air will feel.
"But one cannot achieve anything
through laziness and procrastination. People who desire worldly enjoyment
say about spiritual progress: `Well, it will all happen in time. We shall
realise God sometime or other.'
"It is said that, in the Kaliyuga, if
a man can weep for God one day and one night, he sees Him.
"Feel piqued at God and say to Him:
`You have created me. Now you must reveal yourself to me.' Whether you live
in the world or elsewhere, always fix your mind on God.
"Go forward. The wood-cutter,
following the instructions of the holy man, went forward and found in the
forest sandalwood and mines of silver and gold; and going still farther, he
found diamonds and other precious stones.
"The ignorant are like people living
in a house with clay walls. There is very little light inside, and they
cannot see outside at all. But those who enter the world after attaining the
knowledge of God are like people living in a house made of glass. For them
inside and outside are light. They can see things outside as well as inside.
"Nothing exists except the One. That
One is the Supreme Brahman."
Why Do We Not Make Progress?
As in our worldly affairs so also in
the world of the Spirit there must be systematic practice. We all must be
able to prepare ourselves, so that we may be in the proper mood to follow
the spiritual path. Many of you might know this story: Sri Ramakrishna had a
great disciple, Saint Durgacharan Nag - Naga Mahashaya as he used to be
called. His father was very much attached to him, and again the old man used
to do a lot of `Japa'. Once when he was told, `Your father is a great
devotee', Naga Mahashaya replied, `What can he achieve? He is so much
attached to me. An anchored boat does not move'.
There is a story behind this saying.
Some drunkards, one moonlit night, took it into their heads to go on a boat
ride. They went to the Ghat, hired a boat, sat at the oars and started
rowing. They rowed and rowed and rowed, the whole night. Early in the
morning, when the effect of the drink was gone, to their surprise they found
they had not moved an inch. `What is the matter? What is the matter!' they
asked. They had forgotten to raise the anchor.
I hear constant complaints from
people, `We are doing our spiritual practice, but we do not make any
progress'. The reply is here. At the time of your spiritual practice, are
you able, at least to some extent, to free your mind from worldly matters
and give your purified mind to God? That is the point. We need training in
all paths. Some of you might have read Swami Vivekananda's Jnana Yoga, Karma
Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga. Whatever path one may follow, one needs
discipline, proper training of the mind and creation of the proper mood. If
the mind is trained and the mood is created, one can carry on one's
spiritual practice with great success. Our trouble is: in worldly matters we
may follow some method, but in spiritual affairs we are like children. I
have seen grown-up people and big officials talking like children. So an
inner personality is to be built up. Many of us are persons but have no
personality. We are individuals, but have no individuality. Through moral
practice, through fulfilment of duties, through regular worship, a
spiritualised personality is to be built up. It is then that our spiritual
practice becomes fruitful. Our prayers and meditation will prove to be a
source of great blessing. I repeat, in all the paths, in all of the Yogas,
disciplines are necessary. If I follow Karma Yoga, my mind must be
comparatively calm. I must try to be detached from the things of the world
and from the fruits of my Karma. I must try to dedicate the work to God. If
I follow Bhakti Yoga, I must have a great yearning for God. It is a
spiritual hunger that cannot be appeased by anything in the world. Through
prayer, through Japa, through meditation and ultimately through Divine
contact, the spiritual seeker appeases this spiritual hunger and finds Peace
and Bliss in Divine realisation. Many want to follow Jnana Yoga, but the
mind is to be trained so that it can follow the path of extreme
self-analysis - `I am not the body; I am not the mind; I am not the ego nor
the senses; I am the spirit.' Our teachers of Jnana Yoga say: one must have
perfect dispassion for enjoyment, dislike for any future life and power to
discriminate between the real and the unreal. One must have mental
discipline. One must have infinite faith (Sraddha) in the Supreme Spirit.
One must be able to practise concentration.
When Concentration Becomes Beneficial
Let us remember one point. Many people
say, `Oh! I am not able to practise concentration'. Knowing the persons,
that their mind is not pure enough, I say to them `It is good that you don't
have concentration'. If an impure mind gets concentrated, it becomes like a
bombshell. Aren't we concentrated when we are angry, when we are full of
hatred and jealousy? That concentration is no good. It is actually
dangerous. So an amount of spiritual discipline is necessary. In the path of
Yoga, Patanjali speaks of Yama and Niyama. You have to practise these
disciplines as much as you can. One cannot be established in the spiritual
life all of a sudden.
Ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya,
aparigraha (non-dependance on others' charity) are the first disciplines;
Niyama - which consists chiefly of Saucha, purity of body and mind, Santosha,
contentment - has to be developed. If one is always grumbling and
complaining, can one with such a mind, ever do anything successfully either
in this world or in the world of the spirit? No. We must adjust to the
things in this world and try to improve ourselves.
Tapas: There should be an amount of
austerity in life. Without rigour in spiritual practices, each generation is
becoming softer than the previous one. Nothing can be achieved by these soft
people.
Swadhyaya: We study books. Does
anything enter our mind! We hear a lecture and say it was wonderful; and
when asked `What did you hear?' we would not be able to repeat anything. The
words enter through one ear and pass out through the other. They are not
retained. Swadhyaya means to reflect on what you study. Make it a part of
your own. `Srotavyah': First you hear or read, then you have to reflect on
what you have heard or read, i.e. `Mantavyah'. That is the way. When we are
established in the moral path, to some extent, then we will surely get the
benefit of spiritual disciplines.
Asana: You may sit like a statue for
many hours; what do you get? Pretty nothing. At least there should be
spiritual aspiration; then your sitting posture helps you in your spiritual
practice.
Pranayama: In the practice of
Pranayama you stop your breath. What do you gain? If it is merely a physical
phenomenon, a football bladder then must be a great Yogi. What do you get by
it? Nothing by itself. But when the mind is greatly disciplined, when the
mind is in a spiritual mood, Pranayama helps one to rise to a higher plane
of consciousness.
Praytyahara is detachment. From
everything the mind is to be detached. When you are attending to some work
you banish all other thoughts and give your mind to that particular object.
If you fail to practise detachment you invite worries. When you go to sleep,
and think of too many things, you don't get sleep, you suffer from insomnia
and fall ill. The mind is to be detached from all things at will.
Similarly if you wish to meditate,
what should you do? Detach your mind, as much as you can, from the things of
the world; even from the pictures, the thoughts and the feelings that arise
within you. But detachment should not create a vacuum in your mind. A vacant
mind will fall asleep. Be wide awake. Take the name of the Lord and meditate
on Him. Then there would not be any fear of falling asleep. Instead the mind
will rise to a higher plane.
Dharana: Fix your mind on some divine
theme and that is Dharana.
Dhyana: Fix the mind on a holy word or
on a holy blissful form - that is a step to attain to what is called Dhyana
or contemplation. You remain absorbed in Divine Consciousness and that leads
to the higher state, the superconscious state.
But before we proceed we will ask
ourselves a question and that is very vital. We identify ourselves with the
body and think that we are men and women. We worship a certain Deity - Male
or Female. We begin our spiritual life that way, and end also in that way;
what do we gain? At the very beginning of our spiritual life, it is
essential on our part to be conscious that we are all souls. The Atman, the
spiritual entity, has become bound by ego, bound by the mind, bound by the
senses, bound by the body. This Atman is to be freed.
Worship of God
What then is worship of God? What is
the conception of God? In Europe a devotee said to me `Swami, never utter
the word "God". It calls up our childhood image, viz., there is one beyond
the clouds, in the Heaven, ever eager to punish those who break His laws. I
cannot think of that.' I said, `All right, use the word Ishwara. I use the
word Brahman.'
If we wish to worship God we must feel
our nearness to Him. In a way He is the Creator, the Protector and the
Destroyer. He takes things back to Himself, which we call destroying; but He
is much more than that, He is the Soul of our souls, nearer than the
nearest, dearer than the dearest. He comes to us as Father and Mother. He
comes to us as the Guru and He comes to us also as Ista Devata - the deity
chosen for worship. According to the dualistic Vedanta, and most of us
should start as dualists, the soul and the over-soul - the Atman and
Paramatman - are ever connected. They are ever in union; yet owing to the
impurity of our mind, we become attached to the Lord's creation but not to
Him. A great Western psychologist, seeing the ways of ordinary religious
people, once remarked, `People do not want God. They want to use God!' They
want to pray to God so that He may grant all their prayers and if He does
not grant these prayers, some become sceptical and say "Oh, God does not
exist, and even if He exists, He is deaf, He is blind, He does not respond".
That kind of childish conception is no good. Again you want only the good
God, as if He has no other task but to grant you boons.
You know, Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna
worshipped the Supreme Spirit, first in the form of Kali, a representation
of the Cosmic Process. Mother with one hand is creating; with another hand
She is protecting; with the third hand She is destroying; and with the
fourth hand She is holding the decapitated head. This is the formal
representation of what one of the Upanisadic seers said. The disciple asked
the father `adhi hi bhagavo brahmeti', `Master, tell me about Brahman.' And
the father replied: `Brahman is that out of which all things come into
being, by which all things live and unto which all things go back.' In our
Bhakti Sastras we call it Ishwara, `God', and in Vedanta we call it
Sat-Chit-Ananda. He is Infinite Existence, He is Infinite Consciousness, He
is Infinite Bliss. He dwells in our soul and is the Soul of our souls. Again
we all dwell in Him. We must feel it, at least His nearness. But even if we
cannot feel it, we should try to develop the consciousness that He is nearer
than the nearest, dearer than the dearest. What is it that obstructs this
consciousness? Our desires stand in the way of this spiritual awareness. So
let us try to purify this mind.
Here you come across a big problem. It
is the impure mind that runs after the things of the world. The pure mind
naturally reflects the glory of God, moves towards Him, meditates on Him,
tries to feel His Divine Presence, Love and Bliss. How to purify the mind?
First of all you must avoid evil thoughts, evil feelings, evil actions, as
much as you can. Entertain good thoughts, good feelings and perform good
actions. That is the first step. We should always bear in mind that we are
all souls, Atman. This Atman has put on a human personality, with a view to
play a part in the Cosmic drama of life. Whatever be the part that is
assigned to us, that part has to be played well; that means, we have to
perform the duties of life and work in a spirit of detachment, as a form of
service to God. But mere moral practice and the fulfilment of duties are not
enough to purify the mind; we have to meditate on Him, pray to Him who is
the Infinite Source of purity, of Knowledge, devotion, compassion, Love and
Bliss.
Here we come to the question: How to
worship God, how to pray to Him? But the conception of God is too vast. I
give an illustration: We are like small bubbles. The ocean is too big for
our conception. So what should we do? We find some mighty waves; let us move
towards them, attach ourselves to them and in course of time we have an idea
of the ocean itself. Similarly, we start our spiritual journey with one such
mountain-like wave, our Ista Devata, we just worship Him, pray to Him, then
we come to have a broader conception of life and a broader conception of
Reality. The Ista Devata tells us `Look here. I may be a mighty wave, you
may be a small bubble. But all of us have got the infinite ocean behind us'.
When the proper time comes, He reveals to us the highest Truth.
Is A Guru Essential?
Now, we read in the Gospel of Sri
Ramakrishna, a devotee asking, `Sir, is a spiritual teacher necessary?' Sri
Ramakrishna replied that it is necessary for many. If there be some unique
souls, born with divine consciousness, who feel the Divine presence even
from their very childhood, they do not need a spiritual teacher, but all
others do need. Once a devotee asked our teacher Swami Brahmananda - and I
have been telling many of you to read, if you have not done so, The
Spiritual Teachings of Swami Brahmananda - `Maharaj, is a Guru necessary?'
and the Swami smiled and said, `My boy, even if you want to be a thief, you
need a teacher. How much more should there be the necessity of a teacher
when you want to know the highest truth!' You know there are gangs of
pickpockets; they have to pass through a tremendous discipline and training
and then only one can be an expert pickpocket.
In this connection, I wish to tell you
a story: Girishchandra Ghosh, the actor and dramatist and a great devotee of
Sri Ramakrishna, used to practise Homeopathy in his old age. Taking the name
of the Master he would give medicine. He had naturally tremendous intuition
to achieve success in his way of treatment. One day an elderly and very
decent-looking gentleman was sitting by his side, when a young man came and
said, `Sir, I have lost my wrist watch on my way'. The other gentleman
became inquisitive and asked, `When and where did you lose it?' He said,
`Sir, I lost it at such and such an hour, at such and such a place', and the
man said `You will get it back'. How could he give the assurance? Because,
the fine-looking gentleman was one of the leaders of the pickpockets, one of
their Gurus.
I give you another instance. You want
to learn Astronomy; you take a book and try to understand it; you get
precious nothing! But the Astronomer says something astounding. Every day
you see the sun rising and setting and here comes a man who says the sun
never rises; the sun never sets; it is all due to the movement of the earth.
If we believe our sense perception fully, we do not pay any heed to him. But
if we do not, we have to go to him, study under him, make experiments, and
then we really convince ourselves what we have seen is an illusion and it is
just the truth that the sun never moves, the earth moves.
A spiritual teacher also comes and
says something astounding. We are all conscious of our body. We think we are
all men and women but the spiritual teacher says that we are the Spirit,
distinct from the body and distinct from the mind and distinct from the ego.
But if you think as many think, `He is a cheat', Lord bless you! But if you
doubt sometimes, `Am I this mass of flesh, this mass of filth or is there
something living in me, something living in everybody?' If you start
thinking like that, your spiritual life begins. I go to a teacher who has
been following the spiritual path all his life, has attained illumination,
has come to possess a tremendous sympathy, love, compassion and kindness. I
sit at his feet, learn from him something of spiritual disciplines and do my
spiritual practices regularly. As my mind becomes purer and purer, I get
something in the domain of the spirit and my Ista Devata becomes living. I
feel within me a presence that permeates my being, a presence that permeates
everybody.
I will tell you a story. In the
Upanisads we come across `Narada Sanatkumara Samvada', a discourse between
Narada and Sanatkumara. Saints are not born perfect, they have to manifest
their perfection. Through sadhana they unfold their potentiality. Saints and
sages do not drop from the sky. Narada had his period of true studentship,
studied all branches of learning, studied the scriptures, sciences and arts.
But having mastered the subjects, he found something was lacking in him. He
had studied many things but had not known himself. We all are quite content
to read and know of the outer world but we forget to know even a bit of
ourselves. It is most unscientific. A great Western physicist has said `That
to which Truth matters must have a place in reality, whatever be the
definition of reality'. Without some knowledge about the subject, education
is incomplete. Our world is full of half-educated people, of those who don't
know themselves, who don't know anything of the higher Reality, but pose to
be teachers or saviours of the world. Such persons are about to destroy the
world. Now, let us come back to the anecdote: `Narada felt "I am not an
Atmavit".' He felt a deep pain. He says, `Soham bhagavo sochami - (I, who
have not known the Reality in me, am in great sorrow). Please remove my
sorrow. Take this sorrow away from me. Give me peace.' The Guru listened to
him with infinite tenderness, took him step by step, helped him to have a
finer and finer mind and ultimately revealed to him the Truth. `Yo vai bhuma
tat sukham nalpe sukhamasti ` That alone which is infinite is bliss. There
is no Bliss in the finite.'
How To Purify Our Minds
Our trouble is that our soul longs for
infinite joy, infinite love, infinite bliss. But we want, we try to find
that in the finite and if we don't succeed we feel frustrated. The Guru
said, `If you want real joy, unbounded joy, you have to reach the Infinite'.
So the question was: What is meant by the Infinite? It is that which is
everywhere - above, below, to the right and to the left. But how to reach
it? Here the great ancient teacher Sanat-Kumara gives us in a nutshell the
whole course of spiritual discipline. "Food should be pure. When food is
pure, our nature becomes pure, and when nature becomes pure, mind becomes
pure, and when the mind becomes pure, we remember our spiritual nature.
Gradually we are established in spiritual consciousness and that is
emancipation. That is freedom when the Self-Consciousness (Divine) has
dawned, when we have realised the Infinite Spirit. Once that is done, one
feels oneself one with the Infinite Spirit, and all bonds drop off. Let us
now try to understand the meaning of ahara: ahara is what we take. Does it
mean pure food? Pure Sattvic food? Pure vegetarian food? How far does it
help? It helps a little; but unless you know how to purify the mind, nothing
happens. There are plenty of wicked people who are vegetarians. What type of
vegetarians are they? Lord bless them! You feed a poisonous snake with the
purest of milk. It will manufacture poison, won't it? So something of our
poisonous nature is to be discarded. Therefore, Shankara observes: `All
right! you take pure food, but that is for the nourishment of the body. But
the food that you take through the eye, through the ear, through the senses
and the mind, all that food also should be pure. Then, your nature becomes
pure, the subtle body becomes pure, and then comes illumination.'
Some of you might have seen the three
Japanese monkeys; you know, one monkey is closing both the ears, another
both the eyes and another the mouth. During my stay in Europe, in
Switzerland, I came across a stone carving on the beach of the lake on which
Geneva is situated. It was in a small town. There also there were the three
monkeys, but with this difference, one had only one eye closed, another had
only one ear closed and the third had half of the mouth closed. I was taken
aback for a moment. I thought: `What is this?' Then came in a flash. I
understood the meaning, `Don't see what is bad; see what is good. Don't hear
what is bad; hear what is good. Don't say what is bad; say what is good.'
First I thought it was an original idea. Then my mind turned to the
Upanisads. There is a text, a peace chant: `Let us see what is "Bhadra" -
good. Let us hear what is "Bhadra". Let us sing the glory of the Divine
Spirit.' That is to be done. And, when you have done that, to some extent,
the mind becomes pure. Make the best use of your vocal organ. You may make
bad use of it saying some awful things. Don't do it. Take the name of the
Lord - any Name that appeals to you. Meditate on any aspect that appeals to
you with an amount of devotion. After some time you will find, your mind is
becoming pure. The Divine Name, the Divine Form, uplifts you. Later on, you
may even have a glimpse of your Ista Devata, a glimpse even of the universal
Spirit.
What Is Japa And Where Is One To
Meditate?
The Infinite Spirit is there but we
cannot reach it. We must follow a path that helps us to reach That, higher
and higher, step by step. I want to reach the snow-capped mountains; can I
jump and reach it all at once? No. Swami Brahmananda says in his Spiritual
Teachings: `You want to reach the roof. Do you jump to the roof? No. If you
do, you fall down and break your legs. Go step by step.' So Japa, as the
Master has been saying, is one of the most efficient means. But Japa is not
to be done like a parrot. As you repeat the Divine Name, do the
Artha-Bhavana. What is Artha-Bhavana? Dwelling on the meaning. First of all,
let us think of the Luminous, Blissful Form of the Lord, i.e. the Ista
Devata. Then think of Him as an embodiment of Infinite Purity, Knowledge,
Devotion, Compassion, Love and Bliss. Then think He is no other than the
Paramatman - the all-pervading Spirit dwelling in all beings.
We are asked to meditate in the `Lotus
of the Heart'. Where is this Heart? Is it the physiological heart? We cannot
do anything there. It is the consciousness that is in the Heart, the
consciousness that permeates my entire body and mind. It is the
consciousness of the Atman, the consciousness of the Paramatman. We have to
meditate in this Chidakasa. We have to think of ourselves as the devotee,
and think of the Ista Devata as the manifestation of Paramatman.
Swami Brahmananda used to tell us, "As
you do your spiritual practices, you understand what is meant by the word
`Heart'. First you may think of it as the `Mahakasa', external space; later,
you may think of it as the cosmo-mental world." The real heart is in the
Chidakasa, in the realm of pure consciousness. In that, the soul, the unit
of consciousness, is eternally united with the Infinite Spirit. So you have
to meditate on the Ista Devata in the inner world.
It is good to have a picture. Gaze at
the picture; watch the picture. But it is much better to install your
picture, the Holy form, in your inner world. Then you are not to depend on
anything outside. Whenever you want, look within where your Ista Devata is
seated, and pray to Him. Repeat His Divine Name; meditate on Him; first, it
may be on His Form, then on His attributes, next on His infinite nature.
That is how one is to progress.
Let us go back again to the Yoga
aphorism of Patanjali, already referred to, wherein he tells us how to do
japa. Now if I repeat the Lord's name and meditate on Him, what will happen
to me? The Teacher says, "Think of the meaning - the contents, the
connotation of the word." What happens if we do that? Obstacles are removed
and new spiritual consciousness awakens. Now with the help of Japa and
simple Dhyana, obstacles are removed. Psychologists have explained this in a
remarkable way. We are always manufacturing worries and anxieties, always
manufacturing evil thoughts. These evil thoughts sicken our mind and sicken
our body. The more we think of holy thoughts, the more we repeat the holy
harmonious sound and the more we meditate on the blissful Form of the Lord,
the more the mind is set in abundant harmony. Illnesses, self-created,
self-manufactured, drop off. Then harmony is established in the mind This
harmony reflects itself on the body. So, to some extent physical health and
mental health improve with the repetition of the Divine Name and we come to
know the power of the Divine Name. With the power of meditating on the holy
Form, a new spiritual consciousness that was lying hidden, that was
potential, manifests itself. Then we discover that we are not just these
personalities but we are all souls; and the Ista Devata is no other than the
Paramatman, the source of all Peace, source of all Bliss, the source of all
Love. Such is the power of the Divine Name.
What is Dhyana? We talk of meditation.
You say `I am meditating'. What are you meditating on? Going on brooding
over something or other? That is not what is implied by the word Dhyana.
Dhyana is: when as you think of the Lord, you become absorbed in the Divine
thought. But this absorption would not come all of a sudden. The Japa we do
is a step towards that. Repeat the Divine Name, think of Him, and the mind
becomes a little calm. Even the sound drops off. You can go on thinking of
Him. Then, when God or the Ista Devata becomes more real than the things of
the world, naturally the mind gets absorbed and you gradually get a taste of
the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss. He may come to us in the form of the
Ista Devata; as the Supreme Spirit, as Sat-Chit-Ananda, i.e. Infinite
Consciousness, Infinite Love, Infinite Bliss. This is what happens if you
undergo regular spiritual practice.
In the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the
Master has said, `You must have spiritual yearning'. Spiritual yearning is
like hunger. When people ask me `Why should I meditate?' I say in return,
`Why should you? Don't do it.' But if you had the yearning born in you, you
would have come to know what spiritual hunger is. Then you could not but
think of God, you could not but pray to Him, you could not but take his
Divine Name and think of His glory. This hunger is to be awakened. This
hunger is to be maintained. That becomes possible if you do your spiritual
practice regularly. You feel the body with material food; you feed the mind
through study, with thoughts. But you actually starve the soul in the midst
of plenty. Do you not feel starved? The soul yearns for the Infinite Spirit;
it yearns to realise the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss infinite, and we do
not satisfy the yearning. But when that is done, a new life starts.
The Master has also said that holy
company is necessary, company of those who are following the spiritual path,
who help in strengthening us in the spiritual path, who reflect something of
the Divine Glory, which we also wish to realise. That is necessary.
Follow The Right Path: Begin From The
Beginning
Again the Master said, `One must
follow the right path.' Suppose I am thrown in the wilderness. If I follow
one path, what happens? I enter the wilderness more and more. If I follow
another path, I come out of it. I am reminded of an American story. A
motorist was driving at break-neck speed. He wanted to reach a certain
place. He asked a schoolboy who had studied a little geography: `My son, if
I go this way, shall I be able to reach the place?' `Yes Sir,' said the boy,
`You will reach it.' `How far is it this way?' asked the motorist. `Sir, you
will have to go 25,000 miles,' replied the boy. `If I go the other way?'
`Then only two miles' was the answer. Do you follow the idea? By one path,
you have to come round the world to reach the place. If you go the other way
just two miles. Through proper mood, through proper attitude, if you follow
the proper directions you reach the goal soon, progress is quickened. A
tremendous change takes place within you. But don't try to quicken your
steps too much. Go slow, but with determination, along the right path.
Gradually you shall reach the highest truth. But, as I said in that
illustration of climbing the snow-capped mountain, proceed step by step.
So in our spiritual practice, first
comes `Pratima Puja', i.e. worshipping the Lord in some aspect with the help
of a form, a symbol, a picture, or an image. Next, the repetition of the
Lord's Name, thinking of Him and singing of His glory. Later on as I said,
the mind gets a little absorbed; you feel the Divine presence. That is
Dhyana, and Dhyana leads to the highest goal, the highest realisation. In
order to move, we should proceed step by step. So the Master says, `Go
forward, step by step; from the sandalwood, come to the silver mine, come to
the gold mine and then come to the diamond mine'. Similarly, if we sincerely
follow the spiritual path and begin from the beginning, we will reach the
Truth. But, if we begin from the end, we reach nowhere. Some want to
practise Advaita sadhana. I tell them, `I know nothing of Advaita sadhana:
go to some other teacher.' But if you want to begin from the beginning, I
can tell you something of it.
So, first of all, begin with the
form-aspect. I have body consciousness, I am an embodied being. I am a
person amongst persons. How can I think of the Infinite Spirit? I can't. So
let me begin as Maruti said. Hanuman was asked by Sri Rama `How do you think
of Me?' Hanuman said: `Lord, when I consider myself as a personality, as an
embodied being, I think of myself as Your servant and You as my Master; and
Lord, when I think, I am a soul distinct from the body and mind, I consider
myself as a part and You as the whole. But at other moments, my Lord, when I
rise above all limitations I think You are myself and I am Thyself.' So let
us begin from the beginning.
Sri Ramakrishna is very practical. He
speaks to us of three types of ananda: vishayananda i.e. the ananda that
comes to us through the contact of the senses with the sense objects;
bhajanananda, the ananda that comes to us through bhajana, through Japa,
through Dhyana; and then finally comes brahmananda as the result of the
realisation of the Infinite Spirit. In spiritual life let us have as much
bhajanananda as we can. It is within the reach of all of us. The ananda that
comes to us through Japa, through Dhyana of the Blissful Form of the Lord -
let us have that. And as we have it, let us try to share this Ananda with
our fellow spiritual seekers. That is why, when devotees with such a
spiritual outlook meet together, they repeat the Lord's Name, sing His
glory. At least for the time being they forget the troubles of the world.
The mind is transported to a higher plane, something of the ananda of the
Supreme Being, something of the peace of the Supreme Spirit comes into our
soul, but as I said, we should not stop with that. Our great teachers used
to tell us always, `as you advance, you help others to advance.' One who is
illumined can alone be the real teacher; but in order to be of service to
others one need not be at the beginning fully illumined. Now, I may be a
student of a senior class and when teachers are lacking I can take one of
the lower classes, I can be of service to those who are in the lower class.
Let us not wait for fullest illumination. At every stage it is possible for
us to be of service to our fellow beings.
The highest ideal, as Swami
Vivekananda has said, is this: First let us ourselves be gods and then help
others to be gods. If we advance to some extent, we can help others also to
advance. Here comes the ideal: `To work for our own illumination and
spiritual emancipation and at the same time to render service to others.' As
we improve, we also help others to improve. There is a wonderful prayer. We
have it in the Universal Prayers: `Let the wicked become virtuous and the
virtuous attain peace - tranquillity. Let the peaceful and tranquil attain
illumination and freedom. Let the free help others to become free.' Let us
do it in our own humble way. As we do our spiritual practices, as we
progress in our spiritual path, let us try to be of service to others. So,
my own individual spiritual practice and service to others - these are the
two-fold ways which will help me to attain inner purity, which will help me
to attain Divine Presence, Divine Love, Divine Bliss. There is the whole of
this ideal before us, and let us proceed, each one in one's own way, towards
this truth, step by step; let us be sure of every inch of the ground. And as
we do our spiritual practice, let us not be egocentric. Let us offer all the
fruits of our labour to the Supreme Spirit. Sri Ramakrishna has said, `If we
move towards God one step, He comes towards us ten steps'. It is a fact to
be realised in the world of Spirit. So proceed. The Lord will protect you.
The Lord will guide you. The Lord, the Supreme Spirit, will fill your heart
with Divine Presence, Purity, Love and Bliss.
Let us all offer our salutations to
the Supreme Spirit, who dwells in the hearts of us all. He is the Supreme
Principle of Existence, the Supreme Reality, the Supreme Light and the
Supreme Self. Out of this infinite, all-pervading Spirit we all have come
into being; in that we rest and unto that we return. Let us for a few
moments meditate on the Infinite Spirit. Let us do it each in his own way.
Let us try to feel something of the Divine Presence, Divine Love, and Divine
Bliss. May the All-pervading, All-Blissful Divine Spirit, the Soul of our
souls protect us all. May He guide us all. May He nourish us all. May He
bless us all. May the teachings that we learn become fruitful and forceful
through His Grace. May peace and harmony dwell amongst us all. Om Shantih,
Om Shantih, Om Shantih.
Oh! Lord, all spiritual paths are like
streams leading to Thee, the one ocean of Existence, Consciousness and
Bliss. Thou art our Mother. Thou art our Father. Thou art our Friend. Thou
art our Comrade. Thou art our Knowledge. Thou art our Wealth. Thou are Oh
Lord! our all in all. From unreality lead us to Reality. From darkness lead
us to Light. From death, lead us to Immortality and Bliss. Reach us through
and through - Oh Lord! May we find Thee in our heart of hearts; May we
discover Thee in all our fellow-beings. May we love Thee and serve Thee in
all. May we thus realise the highest goal of human life.
How To Purify Our Minds
Our trouble is that our soul longs for
infinite joy, infinite love, infinite bliss. But we want, we try to find
that in the finite and if we don't succeed we feel frustrated. The Guru
said, `If you want real joy, unbounded joy, you have to reach the Infinite'.
So the question was: What is meant by the Infinite? It is that which is
everywhere - above, below, to the right and to the left. But how to reach
it? Here the great ancient teacher Sanat-Kumara gives us in a nutshell the
whole course of spiritual discipline. "Food should be pure. When food is
pure, our nature becomes pure, and when nature becomes pure, mind becomes
pure, and when the mind becomes pure, we remember our spiritual nature.
Gradually we are established in spiritual consciousness and that is
emancipation. That is freedom when the Self-Consciousness (Divine) has
dawned, when we have realised the Infinite Spirit. Once that is done, one
feels oneself one with the Infinite Spirit, and all bonds drop off." Let us
now try to understand the meaning of ahara (food): ahara is what we take.
Does it mean pure food? Pure Sattvic food? Pure vegetarian food? How far
does it help? It helps a little; but unless you know how to purify the mind,
nothing happens. There are plenty of wicked people who are vegetarians. What
type of vegetarians are they? Lord bless them! You feed a poisonous snake
with the purest of milk. It will manufacture poison, won't it? So something
of our poisonous nature is to be discarded. Therefore, Shankara observes:
`All right! you take pure food, but that is for the nourishment of the body.
But the food that you take through the eye, through the ear, through the
senses and the mind, all that food also should be pure. Then, your nature
becomes pure, the subtle body becomes pure, and then comes illumination.'
Some of you might have seen the three
Japanese monkeys; you know, one monkey is closing both the ears, another
both the eyes and another the mouth. During my stay in Europe, in
Switzerland, I came across a stone carving on the beach of the lake on which
Geneva is situated. It was in a small town. There also there were the three
monkeys, but with this difference, one had only one eye closed, another had
only one ear closed and the third had half of the mouth closed. I was taken
aback for a moment. I thought: `What is this?' Then came in a flash. I
understood the meaning, `Don't see what is bad; see what is good. Don't hear
what is bad; hear what is good. Don't say what is bad; say what is good.'
First I thought it was an original idea. Then my mind turned to the
Upanisads. There is a text, a peace chant: `Let us see what is "Bhadra" -
good. Let us hear what is "Bhadra". Let us sing the glory of the Divine
Spirit.' That is to be done. And, when you have done that, to some extent,
the mind becomes pure. Make the best use of your vocal organ. You may make
bad use of it saying some awful things. Don't do it. Take the name of the
Lord - any Name that appeals to you. Meditate on any aspect that appeals to
you with an amount of devotion. After some time you will find, your mind is
becoming pure. The Divine Name, the Divine Form, uplifts you. Later on, you
may even have a glimpse of your Ista Devata, a glimpse even of the universal
Spirit.
What Is Japa And Where Is One To
Meditate?
The Infinite Spirit is there but we
cannot reach it. We must follow a path that helps us to reach That, higher
and higher, step by step. I want to reach the snow-capped mountains; can I
jump and reach it all at once? No. Swami Brahmananda says in his Spiritual
Teachings: `You want to reach the roof. Do you jump to the roof? No. If you
do, you fall down and break your legs. Go step by step.' So Japa, as the
Master has been saying, is one of the most efficient means. But Japa is not
to be done like a parrot. As you repeat the Divine Name, do the
Artha-Bhavana. What is Artha-Bhavana? Dwelling on the meaning. First of all,
let us think of the Luminous, Blissful Form of the Lord, i.e. the Ista
Devata. Then think of Him as an embodiment of Infinite Purity, Knowledge,
Devotion, Compassion, Love and Bliss. Then think He is no other than the
Paramatman - the all-pervading Spirit dwelling in all beings.
We are asked to meditate in the `Lotus
of the Heart'. Where is this Heart? Is it the physiological heart? We cannot
do anything there. It is the consciousness that is in the Heart, the
consciousness that permeates my entire body and mind. It is the
consciousness of the Atman, the consciousness of the Paramatman. We have to
meditate in this Chidakasa. We have to think of ourselves as the devotee,
and think of the Ista Devata as the manifestation of Paramatman.
Swami Brahmananda used to tell us, "As
you do your spiritual practices, you understand what is meant by the word
`Heart'. First you may think of it as the `Mahakasa', external space; later,
you may think of it as the cosmo-mental world." The real heart is in the
Chidakasa, in the realm of pure consciousness. In that, the soul, the unit
of consciousness, is eternally united with the Infinite Spirit. So you have
to meditate on the Ista Devata in the inner world.
It is good to have a picture. Gaze at
the picture; watch the picture. But it is much better to install your
picture, the Holy form, in your inner world. Then you are not to depend on
anything outside. Whenever you want, look within where your Ista Devata is
seated, and pray to Him. Repeat His Divine Name; meditate on Him; first, it
may be on His Form, then on His attributes, next on His infinite nature.
That is how one is to progress.
Let us go back again to the Yoga
aphorism of Patanjali, already referred to, wherein he tells us how to do
japa. Now if I repeat the Lord's name and meditate on Him, what will happen
to me? The Teacher says, "Think of the meaning - the contents, the
connotation of the word." What happens if we do that? Obstacles are removed
and new spiritual consciousness awakens. Now with the help of Japa and
simple Dhyana, obstacles are removed. Psychologists have explained this in a
remarkable way. We are always manufacturing worries and anxieties, always
manufacturing evil thoughts. These evil thoughts sicken our mind and sicken
our body. The more we think of holy thoughts, the more we repeat the holy
harmonious sound and the more we meditate on the blissful Form of the Lord,
the more the mind is set in abundant harmony. Illnesses, self-created,
self-manufactured, drop off. Then harmony is established in the mind This
harmony reflects itself on the body. So, to some extent physical health and
mental health improve with the repetition of the Divine Name and we come to
know the power of the Divine Name. With the power of meditating on the holy
Form, a new spiritual consciousness that was lying hidden, that was
potential, manifests itself. Then we discover that we are not just these
personalities but we are all souls; and the Ista Devata is no other than the
Paramatman, the source of all Peace, source of all Bliss, the source of all
Love. Such is the power of the Divine Name.
What is Dhyana? We talk of meditation.
You say `I am meditating'. What are you meditating on? Going on brooding
over something or other? That is not what is implied by the word Dhyana.
Dhyana is: when as you think of the Lord, you become absorbed in the Divine
thought. But this absorption would not come all of a sudden. The Japa we do
is a step towards that. Repeat the Divine Name, think of Him, and the mind
becomes a little calm. Even the sound drops off. You can go on thinking of
Him. Then, when God or the Ista Devata becomes more real than the things of
the world, naturally the mind gets absorbed and you gradually get a taste of
the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss. He may come to us in the form of the
Ista Devata; as the Supreme Spirit, as Sat-Chit-Ananda, i.e. Infinite
Consciousness, Infinite Love, Infinite Bliss. This is what happens if you
undergo regular spiritual practice.
In the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the
Master has said, `You must have spiritual yearning'. Spiritual yearning is
like hunger. When people ask me `Why should I meditate?' I say in return,
`Why should you? Don't do it.' But if you had the yearning born in you, you
would have come to know what spiritual hunger is. Then you could not but
think of God, you could not but pray to Him, you could not but take his
Divine Name and think of His glory. This hunger is to be awakened. This
hunger is to be maintained. That becomes possible if you do your spiritual
practice regularly. You feed the body with material food; you feed the mind
through study, with thoughts. But you actually starve the soul in the midst
of plenty. Do you not feel starved? The soul yearns for the Infinite Spirit;
it yearns to realise the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss infinite, and we do
not satisfy the yearning. But when that is done, a new life starts.
The Master has also said that holy
company is necessary, company of those who are following the spiritual path,
who help in strengthening us in the spiritual path, who reflect something of
the Divine Glory, which we also wish to realise. That is necessary.
Follow The Right Path: Begin From The
Beginning
Again the Master said, `One must
follow the right path.' Suppose I am thrown in the wilderness. If I follow
one path, what happens? I enter the wilderness more and more. If I follow
another path, I come out of it. I am reminded of an American story. A
motorist was driving at break-neck speed. He wanted to reach a certain
place. He asked a schoolboy who had studied a little geography: `My son, if
I go this way, shall I be able to reach the place?' `Yes Sir,' said the boy,
`You will reach it.' `How far is it this way?' asked the motorist. `Sir, you
will have to go 25,000 miles,' replied the boy. `If I go the other way?'
`Then only two miles' was the answer. Do you follow the idea? By one path,
you have to come round the world to reach the place. If you go the other way
just two miles. Through proper mood, through proper attitude, if you follow
the proper directions you reach the goal soon, progress is quickened. A
tremendous change takes place within you. But don't try to quicken your
steps too much. Go slow, but with determination, along the right path.
Gradually you shall reach the highest truth. But, as I said in that
illustration of climbing the snow-capped mountain, proceed step by step.
So in our spiritual practice, first
comes `Pratima Puja', i.e. worshipping the Lord in some aspect with the help
of a form, a symbol, a picture, or an image. Next, the repetition of the
Lord's Name, thinking of Him and singing of His glory. Later on as I said,
the mind gets a little absorbed; you feel the Divine presence. That is
Dhyana, and Dhyana leads to the highest goal, the highest realisation. In
order to move, we should proceed step by step. So the Master says, `Go
forward, step by step; from the sandalwood, come to the silver mine, come to
the gold mine and then come to the diamond mine'. Similarly, if we sincerely
follow the spiritual path and begin from the beginning, we will reach the
Truth. But, if we begin from the end, we reach nowhere. Some want to
practise Advaita sadhana. I tell them, `I know nothing of Advaita sadhana:
go to some other teacher.' But if you want to begin from the beginning, I
can tell you something of it.
So, first of all, begin with the
form-aspect. I have body consciousness, I am an embodied being. I am a
person amongst persons. How can I think of the Infinite Spirit? I can't. So
let me begin as Maruti said. Hanuman was asked by Sri Rama `How do you think
of Me?' Hanuman said: `Lord, when I consider myself as a personality, as an
embodied being, I think of myself as Your servant and You as my Master; and
Lord, when I think, I am a soul distinct from the body and mind, I consider
myself as a part and You as the whole. But at other moments, my Lord, when I
rise above all limitations I think You are myself and I am Thyself.' So let
us begin from the beginning.
Sri Ramakrishna is very practical. He
speaks to us of three types of ananda (bliss): vishayananda i.e. the ananda
that comes to us through the contact of the senses with the sense objects;
bhajanananda, the ananda that comes to us through bhajana, through Japa,
through Dhyana; and then finally comes brahmananda as the result of the
realisation of the Infinite Spirit. In spiritual life let us have as much
bhajanananda as we can. It is within the reach of all of us. The ananda that
comes to us through Japa, through Dhyana of the Blissful Form of the Lord -
let us have that. And as we have it, let us try to share this Ananda with
our fellow spiritual seekers. That is why, when devotees with such a
spiritual outlook meet together, they repeat the Lord's Name, sing His
glory. At least for the time being they forget the troubles of the world.
The mind is transported to a higher plane, something of the ananda of the
Supreme Being, something of the peace of the Supreme Spirit comes into our
soul, but as I said, we should not stop with that. Our great teachers used
to tell us always, `as you advance, you help others to advance.' One who is
illumined can alone be the real teacher; but in order to be of service to
others one need not be at the beginning fully illumined. Now, I may be a
student of a senior class and when teachers are lacking I can take one of
the lower classes, I can be of service to those who are in the lower class.
Let us not wait for fullest illumination. At every stage it is possible for
us to be of service to our fellow beings.
The highest ideal, as Swami
Vivekananda has said, is this: First let us ourselves be gods and then help
others to be gods. If we advance to some extent, we can help others also to
advance. Here comes the ideal: `To work for our own illumination and
spiritual emancipation and at the same time to render service to others.' As
we improve, we also help others to improve. There is a wonderful prayer. We
have it in the Universal Prayers: `Let the wicked become virtuous and the
virtuous attain peace - tranquillity. Let the peaceful and tranquil attain
illumination and freedom. Let the free help others to become free.' Let us
do it in our own humble way. As we do our spiritual practices, as we
progress in our spiritual path, let us try to be of service to others. So,
my own individual spiritual practice and service to others - these are the
two-fold ways which will help me to attain inner purity, which will help me
to attain Divine Presence, Divine Love, Divine Bliss. There is the whole of
this ideal before us, and let us proceed, each one in one's own way, towards
this truth, step by step; let us be sure of every inch of the ground. And as
we do our spiritual practice, let us not be egocentric. Let us offer all the
fruits of our labour to the Supreme Spirit. Sri Ramakrishna has said, `If we
move towards God one step, He comes towards us ten steps'. It is a fact to
be realised in the world of Spirit. So proceed. The Lord will protect you.
The Lord will guide you. The Lord, the Supreme Spirit, will fill your heart
with Divine Presence, Purity, Love and Bliss.
Let us all offer our salutations to
the Supreme Spirit, who dwells in the hearts of us all. He is the Supreme
Principle of Existence, the Supreme Reality, the Supreme Light and the
Supreme Self. Out of this infinite, all-pervading Spirit we all have come
into being; in that we rest and unto that we return. Let us for a few
moments meditate on the Infinite Spirit. Let us do it each in his own way.
Let us try to feel something of the Divine Presence, Divine Love, and Divine
Bliss. May the All-pervading, All-Blissful Divine Spirit, the Soul of our
souls protect us all. May He guide us all. May He nourish us all. May He
bless us all. May the teachings that we learn become fruitful and forceful
through His Grace. May peace and harmony dwell amongst us all. Om Shantih,
Om Shantih, Om Shantih.
Oh! Lord, all spiritual paths are like streams leading to
Thee, the one ocean of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. Thou art our
Mother. Thou art our Father. Thou art our Friend. Thou art our Comrade. Thou
art our Knowledge. Thou art our Wealth. Thou art Oh Lord! our all in all.
From unreality lead us to Reality. From darkness lead us to Light. From
death, lead us to Immortality and Bliss. Reach us through and through - Oh
Lord! May we find Thee in our heart of hearts; May we discover Thee in all
our fellow-beings. May we love Thee and serve Thee in all. May we thus
realise the highest goal of human life.
Back to Contents
Pain Must Have A Stop
Reprinted, with grateful thanks, from
`Vedanta
Kesari', May 1965.
Although the True
nature of man as defined by the Upanisads is Absolute, Infinite, and has the
attributes of pure existence, pure consciousness, and pure joy, we find most
commonly that we are neither happy and free from pain, nor secure and free
from fear, nor all-knowing and free from ignorance. Ordinarily, when life is
miserable and we are racked with pain and feel shrunken by oppressions, we
could laugh at the idea that there is anything absolute and free about us.
Why is this?
Pain is there as
an opposite to pleasure and is experienced by the mind of an embodied soul (jiva)
which is conditioned by desires and ignorance. Pain exists only for him, the
individual. For on the Universal level spoken of by the Upanisads there is
neither pleasure nor pain. By clinging to pleasures and identifying himself
with body and mind, the individual (jiva) causes a kind of imbalance where
he experiences now pleasure and now pain in their full intensity. But on the
universal level (Cosmic Mind or God) these two can be said to have
neutralised each other so that neither is experienced. Thus during the
period of his life when Sri Ramakrishna had the painful throat cancer he
said: `I notice that when my mind is united with God the suffering of the
body is left aside.'
The desires and
ignorance which cause the imbalance and individuality have no existence
apart from the mind, and the mind again, has no existence apart from the
soul (atman) - like waves which are not separate from the ocean although
they may each have an individual form. Therefore jivahood - the
individualised state with its pleasures and pains - is experienced in mind
alone. But mind per se is unconscious and unintelligent and derives the
attributes of consciousness and intelligence by reflection from the soul
which alone is pure consciousness. It is only by conjunction of the mind
with the soul that jivahood and pain are experienced. And conjunction occurs
due to ignorance of the true nature of the soul - and this in turn brings in
its train egoism, attachment, aversion, and attachment to life which are the
afflictions (kleshas) and the direct cause of pain. These, again, are not to
be found in the soul but only in the mind. Each time there is a perception,
feeling or thought there is a reaction in the mind like a wave and when the
embodied soul (jiva) identifies itself with this there arises ego and
personality with their inherent desires and aversions. These in turn bring
into being the causal chain of karma, and one painful situation is the cause
of another.
Two main ways are
given for the cure. One is the way of knowledge (jnana) by the practice of
discrimination between the true Reality and the apparent one, renunciation
of all elements of the apparent reality which he finds to be the non-Self,
and by meditation. It is the wilful withdrawal of the reflected
consciousness from the mirror of the mind-waves. This results in the
disjunction of the true Self or soul from the body-mind mechanism and man
abides in his own blissful nature, full of peace and free from pain. Such a
mind, deprived of its reflected consciousness, ceases to exist as mind and
no longer has any relation to personality or ego. Then the question of pain
does not arise, for where there is no ego there can be no pain.
A modification of
this method is given in the Upanisads and by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras,
which consists in the conscious entity - the Self - taking the position of a
witness of phenomena and being aware that in any perception, feeling or
experience the Reality is not to be found in the experience but in the
experiencer, the feeler, and the perceiver. That is, what is seen is not the
Real but the seer (the conscious Self) is the Real; what is heard is not the
Real but the hearer is the Real; what is felt is not the Real but the feeler
is the Real; what is thought is not the Real but the thinker is the Real -
He is the witness, the True, the inner controller. Thus there is no
involment in, participation of, or attachment to the experience and neither
pleasure nor pain will be experienced as such. The waves of the mind
deprived of the power of the Self will subside and cease to be troublesome.
Here the question
may arise as to what happens to the pain-bearing karma remaining in the mind
of one who has accomplished disjunction or the position of a witness? The
answer is that this cannot be accomplished until the mind is purged of that
kind of karma. That is, the impression of inertia and indolence (tamas) and
those of selfish action, ambition and violence (rajas) must have been
removed and only the tranquil (sattvic) condition remains.
Again, we may
think that since pain is the result of the accumulated karma from the past
resulting from the action based upon ignorance and desire, it might be
possible for one to create such a karma through virtuous and selfless action
that eventually one may be free from pain altogether. But pain can at best
be only attenuated by this means, for as long as one functions in the body
and mind there will remain some kind of pain. There is what Patanjali calls
`guna-vrtti-virodha' - the interplay and counteraction of the gunas, the
forces of nature which now cause pleasure and again cause pain.
The second way to
cope with pain is by love and devotion to God (bhakti). By directing these
feelings to God pain is transformed and sublimated. The mind-waves are
identified with God by means of a strong feeling of love for Him in a
relationship of mother, father, friend, servant, child or beloved. The mind
thus concentrated on God becomes pure and sattvic, and the tamasic and
rajasic modifications which cause our pains are overpowered and merge in the
ruling emotion of love. Not that one does not feel pain any longer, but pain
is accepted with good grace (and sometimes with joy) as coming from the
Beloved. For God as the all-in-all is not only the creator and preserver of
the universe but also the destroyer and He who gives life and brings joy and
happiness is also He who brings pain, misery and death. The true devotee
receives both opposites with equal love and grace. We often find this
standpoint expressed in Christian mystical literature. For example, Jean
Pierre de Caussade states,
`To suffer in
sweetness and in peace without offering any resistance is to suffer in the
right way ... You are to thank God, as though for a grace, for what you
suffer meanly and weakly ... these God-wrought calamities, if rightly
viewed, are worth more than all worldly prosperity. For they are over in a
moment while their fruits are eternal.' And, writing to a friend, `When I
think of the infinite value of your present tribulations I dare not wish for
them to end; what I do wish is that you shall be kept in a continual state
of sacrifice and self-abandonment, or at least, that you shall strive after
this, yearn for it and unceasingly beseech God for it. When our hearts are
thus inclined, our wise employment of tribulations and afflictions advances
our eternal welfare more than do successes and consolations.'1
Meister Eckhart
says,
`We need not fear
all the pain and trouble that could come, because it is going to have an end
... We are to be so dead that neither good nor evil affect us ... Life
cannot be perfected until it has returned to its secret source, where life
is Being, a life the soul receives when it dies down to its roots, so that
we may live that life yonder which itself is being.'2
This is not to
imply that one should actually court pain or seek it out, for that would be
a kind of morbid and pathological practice. But when pain comes as the
inevitable effect of previous karma one should be resigned to God - that is,
one concentrates the mind on God rather than on the pain or the ego-reaction
of depression, frustration, anger, etc. Thus pain is transformed and
sublimated. The pains and unhappy circumstances that may come to a man of
spiritual knowledge are like events that happen at a distance and do not
relate to him, for he has become detached from the vehicles wherein pain
inheres - the body and mind. It is as if these were happening to someone
else while his true Self within is at peace and is blissful.
It may be that
those who have many desires and attachments say that this is a pessimistic
viewpoint for it negates all that they hold dear - the empirical self and
the phenomenal world of maya. And the doctrine of karma makes them
responsible for their own limitations and misery, whereas they would rather
blame something or someone else - the family, relatives, the state, country,
social, economic, or political systems etc. and they are unfortunate victims
of a hapless fate. But maya is an explanation of the status of the
phenomenal world just as it is, and karma is the law of cause and effect
working within it. For the man of wisdom who knows the Self alone is dear,
the maya viewpoint naturally follows and it is a happy and blissful one, for
what it negates is that which is the cause of misery and bondage, i.e.
ignorance, desire and attachment. It is stated in the Panchadasi:
The sufferings of
the three bodies (gross, subtle and causal) are caused by the desire of the
enjoyer for the objects of enjoyment. These sufferings affect the three
bodies, but the Self is not affected by them.
The sufferings of
the gross body take the form of disease due to the disequilibrium of the
bodily humours; desire and anger and other passions are the sufferings of
the subtle body; and the source of the sufferings of both the gross and
subtle bodies is the causal body.
When the jiva is
recognised to be identical with the immutable, Kutastha, the sufferings of
the bodies cease to affect him and no experiencer remains.3
And also the
Brihadaranyaka Upanisad states:
`If a man knows
the Self as "I am this (Self)", then desiring what and for whose sake will
he suffer in the wake of the body?'4
One may ask, `If
the sufferings affect the three bodies and not the Self, then is it a matter
of stoically bearing the pains or do the pains actually disappear?' The
answer is that in some cases the pains disappear or are no longer cognised
and in other cases - especially those of the bhaktas whose mind is totally
given up to God - pains may be transformed into joy, as in the instances of
some religious martyrs. For example, Blanche Gamond tells of a torture
experience:
"... I was naked
from the waist up. They brought a cord with which they tied me to a beam in
the kitchen ...then they discharged their fury upon me, exclaiming as they
struck me, `Pray now to your God' ... but at this moment I received the
greatest consolation that I ever received in my life, since I had the honour
of being whipped for the name of Christ, and in addition of being crowned
with his mercy and consolations. Why can I not write down the inconceivable
influences, consolations, and peace which I felt interiorly? To understand
them one must pass through the same trial; they were so great that I was
ravished, for there where afflictions abound grace is given
super-abundantly. In vain the women cried, `We must double our blows; she
does not feel them, for she neither speaks nor cries.' And how should I have
cried, since I was swooning with happiness within?"5
The first method
discussed here - that of the jnani - is illustrated by the case of Swami
Shivananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and the second president of
the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Toward the last years of his life his body
was racked with several kinds of ailments so that he could walk only a few
steps at a time. Yet when he was asked, `How are you Maharaj?' He would
reply, `I am fine'. On being further told that his body seemed to be in bad
condition, he would reply, `Oh, you are asking about the body? The body is
not at all well, but I am fine. Talking about God with people ... I am in
excellent spirits ... pain and anguish belong to the body. He who dwells
within the body is not affected by them - He is Bliss itself. I am not the
body. I am that Eternal Supreme Being, ever pure, illumined and free. The
Master has given me that knowledge in the fullest measure. That is why it
does not make any difference whether the body is well, or sick or old.'6
Thus, any given
experience can be painful to one, indifferent to
another and joyous to a third, depending on how much spiritual knowledge
and/or love of God has been attained. Vrttis - waves in the mind - are like
reflecting surfaces for the soul and are of three kinds: tamasic, rajasic
and sattvic. In the first the reflection is most obscured and the image is
barely seen. In the second the reflection is clearer but the image is
distorted so that we mistake it for what it is not. In the third, the
sattvic, the reflection is clear so that we see the image properly, but it
is at best a reflected image and not the Real thing (svarupa). The wise man
recognises these as reflected images in his mind and is not deceived by
them. He knows that they have no relation to him and belong only to nature.
Therefore, whatever their condition, he is free from their effects. Having
withdrawn his consciousness from all the vrttis, the reflections disappear
and merge into their source, the Divine Self. There remains no one to
experience pain, for the Self is only Joy.
Dehabhimane galite,
vijnate paramatmani
Yatra yatra mano
yati tatra tatra samadhyah.
With the
disappearance of attachment to the body and with the realisation of the
Supreme Self, to whatever object the mind is directed one experiences
samadhi.7 M
Back to contents
The Direct
Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.
Swami Ranganathananda is the
President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna
Mission.
This is the text of his talk, which
first appeared in
`Vedanta Kesari`, January 1998,
given at the
Monks` retreat held at Belur Math
on
Sunday 18 November 1995.
First of all I remember Swami
Shivanandaji Maharaj, the Second President of the Ramakrishna Order, fondly
known as Mahapurush Maharaj. I was living in a village called Trikkur, ten
kilometres away from the town of Trissur in Kerala. My house in Trikkur is
situated on the bank of the river Manali, and to the east of my house is an
ancient rock cave temple of Siva on a hill about half a kilometre away. I
was studying in the 8th class at that time in the high school at Ollur, five
kilometres from Trikkur on the road to Trissur. A classmate brought a book
from the library of the Vivekodayam High School in Trissur. `Would you like
to read this book?` he asked me. `Yes, I would like to read it,` I replied,
not knowing what it was. It was the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, by `M`
published by the Madras Math. He gave it to me. I started reading it. It
gripped my attention, and I could not stop till I had finished one hundred
pages continuously; later I read the whole book. Then other books on Thakur
and Swamiji came from that Trissur library.
That was in 1924. I was only fifteen
and a half years old then, and was waiting for an opportunity to join the
Ramakrishna Order. In 1926, after finishing my school final examination, I
joined a typewriting Institute in Trissur to learn shorthand and
typewriting. Some fees had to be paid. I took three rupees from my house and
came to Trissur. From there I wrote to the Madras Math that I wanted to join
the Ramakrishna Mission. One brahmachari replied: `Here there is not enough
room. There is a new centre in Mysore; it is in need of a brahmachari. So,
please write to the Swami-in-charge, Swami Siddheshwaranandaji.`
So, I wrote to Swami
Siddheshwaranandaji at Mysore. By that time, however, Siddheshwaranandaji
himself came to Trissur to meet his parents; his father was the Second
Prince of the Cochin State. I met Maharaj. He said, `Yes, you can come. Have
you got enough money to go to Mysore via Ooty?` I said, `I have just three
rupees, nothing more.` But I had my earrings; even boys used to wear them in
Kerala. I could sell them in the market; but it was Sunday, no shop was
open. But one person gave me two rupees, and Siddheshwaranandaji gave me two
rupees. So, I had now seven rupees in my pocket. But that was not enough for
the journey to Mysore via Ooty. How was I to go with Siddheshwaranandaji to
Ooty by train at 8.30 p.m. that day? I was greatly disturbed in mind. I was
not fully committed to go, but I also wanted very much to go. Such was my
mental struggle. And I was very young then, only seventeen and a half years
old. I went to the Sri Ramakrishna Shrine in the Trissur Vivekodayam High
School to pray for Thakur's grace. I often used to bring flowers from my
house for worship in that shrine. With tears in my eyes, I prayed to Thakur
to arrange for my renunciation and departure to Mysore with
Siddheshwaranandaji. Even now, after seventy years, the memory of that event
in that shrine stirs me.
Then, at the last minute, I went to
Siddheshwaranandaji's house. He was ready to start for the railway station.
He said, `All right, come with me tonight by the 8.30 train to Ooty.`
I did not know anything about
initiation. I wanted to join the Mission, and I had read some books about
Thakur and Swamiji, and had memorised the `Prakritim Paramam' hymn on Holy
Mother. That was enough to inspire me to dedicate my life to the Mission.
So, at 8.30 pm, we got into the train and it reached Ooty next morning. Ooty
is about six thousand feet above sea level. Siddheshwaranandaji, familiarly
known as Gopal Maharaj, myself, and three students were in the party.
Mahapurush Maharaj was then living in a rented house at Ooty, which he loved
very much. The present Ooty Ashrama was being built on a site nearby, and
was to be opened in 1927. I was allowed to stay in Mahapurush Maharaj`s
house and have breakfast, but was to eat outside in a hotel. There was no
arrangement in the Ashrama then for feeding so many people. So, with the
money I had, I would eat outside. By the time I finished one week in Ooty,
the money I had was exhausted. It was on June 25, 1926, that I left Trissur
for Ooty, and on June 30, my initiation by Mahapurushji took place.
I entered the room in which Mahapurush
Maharaj was sitting for the ceremony. To his left was my seat. I sat down
and looked at the whole scene. A dream I had three or four years earlier
came to my mind then. I used to worship regularly Siva in the village rock
cave temple. In that dream, I was lifted high up in the sky; then I reached
a beautiful place. An old venerable looking person was sitting there; and my
mind recognised him as Siva. He asked me to sit to his left and gave me some
spiritual instructions. That much was the dream, and I found an exact
reproduction of that dream in that particular situation in Ooty. Mahapurush
Maharaj asked me, `Do you worship Sri Ramakrishna?` I said, `No, I don`t
actually worship, but I keep a picture of his, and salute it regularly.` And
he said, `That is all right.` He then gave me the mantra and asked me, `Have
you brought any guru dakshina?` `Nothing,` I said. Only one shirt, one
dhoti, and one towel - that was all I had brought from my house. He took two
or three mangoes from his right side and gave them to me and said, `Now give
them back to me as guru dakshina.` I offered them back to him, made pranams
to him and came out of the room.
After two days, on July 2, we had to
take leave of Mahapurush Maharaj to go to Mysore. Swami Siddheshwarananda
and I went to his room to take leave of him. It was about 5.30 am. He was
sitting there on a chair counting some currency notes. `Gopal, do you want
some money? I can give you,` he said. Gopal Maharaj said, `Not necessary,
Maharaj,` though Mysore Ashrama was very poor at that time. I made pranams
to my guru. `Yes, you go to Mysore. Serve Gopal,` Mahapurushji said to me.
That was the only message he gave me then - `Serve Gopal`. My service of
Gopal Maharaj continued for nine years in Mysore and three years in
Bangalore. He was holy and kind and loving. We parted only when he went to
open the Paris Vedanta Centre in 1938. So, we took leave of Mahapurush
Maharaj and left by bus at 7.00 am, and reached the Mysore Ashrama at 9.00
pm. Later, I saw an entry of Rs.7 spent by the Mysore Ashrama towards my
Ooty-Mysore journey.
For the first time I saw a big town
with electric lights and all that. As a village boy, I did not know about
town life. I did not know even how to post a letter, how to cash a cheque,
etc. That night, at 9 o'clock, for the first time in my life, I got a glass
of milk and two pieces of bread for my supper from a boy who was living in
the Ashrama as a bhikshannam student. I still remember the taste of that
first meal in the Ashrama, of bread and milk, that took place seventy years
ago. That was on July 2, 1926. On July 3, my long hair was cut and my
earrings were removed.
Then, on July 4, I entered the Ashrama
kitchen. There was no paid cook, since the Ashrama income was very little.
Siddheshwaranandaji`s health was poor due to bad food. I was a good cook
with two years` experience of cooking in my house for the whole family even
from the age of twelve to fourteen. So, everybody in Mysore Ashrama began to
get good food from that time. For the next six years, I was a cook,
dish-washer, and house-keeper in the Mysore Ashrama. Collection of monthly
subscription, garden work, and some other things also were added later on.
Whenever I requested people for subscription, I spoke about Swami
Vivekananda. They were happy and used to give me tea and tiffin, and
sometimes something also for taking to the Ashrama. So, in this way, my life
went on, with plenty of study also in between work. In spite of heavy work,
I never complained of want of time for study or japa-dhyana. I was always
happy and cheerful, and enjoyed doing any and every type of work as Thakur`s
service. I never experienced any tiredness. I wrestled with students in the
Ashrama`s akhada and later on played volleyball.
In 1929, time came for my brahmacharya
initiation. So, in March 1929, I came to Belur Math. My brahmacharya was on
Buddha`s birthday, May 23. About four months I stayed in Belur Math at that
time. On the day of brahmacharya diksha, Mahapurush Maharaj came to the room
behind the old shrine, and sat with a smiling face in the veranda, facing
the ceremony going on in the room. We were five or six brahmacharis. He gave
me the name Yati Chaitanya.
The most memorable experiences during
my stay at the Math were the daily morning sessions in Mahapurush Maharaj`s
room after breakfast, lasting sometimes for over an hour. Monks and
probationers would come in batches and prostrate before him and stand aside.
He would be sitting on his bed or in his chair, indrawn, often with the
hookah (hubble-bubble) in front, from which he would draw a puff now and
then, mostly absent-mindedly, and would occasionally exchange courtesies
with the monks and novices present. When the indrawn mood would relax, he
conversed on various topics with those present, interspersing it with humour
and laughter, an endearing trait especially characteristic of Sri
Ramakrishna and his disciples. Sometimes the talk would turn on to deep
spiritual themes, and those present would hang on to every word that then
fell from his lips. In between all these, one heard him utter, in a tone
suffused with deep devotion, such spiritual phrases as: Sat-chit-ananda
Shivam, Jai Guru Maharaj, Jai Ma, etc.
One of my daily duties in Belur Math
then was sweeping the spacious front courtyard. Sometimes, as I swept, the
wind would carry the dirt back, so I had to sweep again. But it did not
bother me; it was a play for me. Washing Thakur`s puja vessels was another
work. Serving tea to members in the tea-stall which was situated to the left
of the present Temple site was yet another duty. Some other duties like
bringing water on my head for Mahapurush Maharaj`s bath from Lilua
tube-well, a small quantity of curd from the Belur market for his dog, and
serving in the dining hall were also there. I was ready for everything. I
was very young then, and full of tireless energy. There was also a kusti
akhada situated near where the dining hall is now. Swami Apurvananda,
Mahapurushji`s sevak, was a good wrestler. I had wrestled with him and with
two or three others also in that akhada. Many people used to gather to see
our wrestling. One cook from Varanasi Sevashrama had come. He was also a
good wrestler. When he gripped my hand, it became powerless; such strength
he had, though he appeared ordinary. Then there was Jnan Maharaj's parallel
bar, fixed where at present the platform is erected during the celebrations.
There I used to do a little bit of bar exercise. I had time for everything.
I was very hungry all the time except after lunch and dinner. Morning
breakfast was tea and a thin slice of bread, as thin as the knife blade,
with a little butter on it. As for tea, there was only one glass of milk for
all the inmates together with plenty of water and sugar. Revered
Suddhanandaji, the then General Secretary, and Revered Swami Virajanandaji,
and other senior swamis also would be present, and I used to serve them. To
satisfy my hunger, I used to take muri, in my shirt end, kept in a big tin
on the Math verandah, and eat a lot of it. Food was very poor due to
financial stringency; dal was watery, but `chachari` and `alu dam` were
tasteful.
I came to know many of our senior
monks at that time. It was also the time when the Ganen trouble took place.
Ganendranath, a brahmachari of Udbodhan, looking after the Jadupati Estate,
challenged the Mission. The Mission was subjected to a serious crisis. He
began to influence various members of the Ramakrishna Mission Association.
He had also great influence over the press in Calcutta. The headquarters
invited swamis from various Ashramas to come to the Belur Math. Every now
and then a bell would ring and sadhus would gather together to discuss some
problem or other. Swami Omkaranandaji would take the lead. Then we would
pass a resolution and go to Mahapurush Maharaj to represent him against
Ganendranath. In this way, there was a crisis period at that time for more
than a month continuously. Eventually, the Mission Association General body
meeting passed off peacefully. Ganen had come to the Math, but he did not
attend the meeting. I saw him walking about in the lawn outside the meeting,
smoking a cigarette. Many swamis were made Mission members. I also was made
a Mission member then. In July 1929, the Ganen problem was settled by paying
him Rs.75,000 for managing the Estate. He left the Order with Chapala, a
lady teacher of the Nivedita School.
The group photo that you find on the
wall in the first floor of the main Math building (above the staircase) was
taken in the lawn between the main Math building and the Ganga ghat, in May
1929, in view of the large assembly of our monks from many branch centres at
that time. Revered Subodhanandaji, Revered Suddhanandaji, Revered
Virajanandaji, Revered Vireswaranandaji, and many other Heads of centres are
there in the photo. I am also there in that photo. Mahapurush Maharaj was
sitting in the easy chair in the upper verandah. But the photo-taking was
getting delayed, and so he left for his room. Swami Vividishanandaji was
going to America; so it was also like a send-off to him on that occasion.
I spent four months very happily in
Belur Math. The then General Secretary, Swami Suddhanandaji, sometimes would
say to me, `How long will you stay here? It is time for you to go to your
centre in Mysore. Belur Math cannot spend much money on so many guests.' `I
shall go soon, I shall go soon,' I would reply. And after four months, I
went back to Mysore.
In 1933, I came to Belur Math again,
this time for sannyasa. It was Swami Vivekananda`s birthday, January 23,
1933. It was a beautiful occasion, but Mahapurush Maharaj was rather weak at
that time and could not come to the ceremony held in the room behind the old
shrine. He was in his room. After the sannyasa havan, we, nine of us,
including the late Swami Hitananda and Swami Krishnatmananda, went to his
room and received sannyasa mantras from him, including the gerua clothes and
our names. It is interesting to mention that with Mahapurush Maharaj`s
permission, I had been wearing gerua cloth since my fourth or fifth month in
the Order, from 1927. I did not know much about sannyasa at that time.
I continued to stay at the Belur Math
for about four months. During that time, a desire arose in my mind to go to
Sargachi and meet Swami Akhandanandaji Maharaj. When I was reading Swamiji`s
works, I had found Swamiji praising Swami Akhandanandaji very much. He was
the first to implement Swamiji's message of service to the poor and the
downtrodden. `You are my man, you are my man!' - Swamiji had praised him.
So, I had nursed a secret desire to meet Swami Akhandanandaji in Sargachi. I
took Mahapurush Maharaj's permission to go to Sargachi to meet him. In those
days, we had weekend return tickets; it was very cheap then - Friday you go
and Sunday you return. So, with Mahapurushji`s blessings, I went to Sargachi.
I had a wonderful weekend there. I met Akhandanandaji, made pranams and
explained my heart`s desire. I was a newcomer from far away Mysore Ashrama,
and I was quite young, hardly twenty-four or twenty-five. But Swami
Akhandanandaji treated me like a VIP guest - special cup, special saucer,
special kettle - everything special for me. And he would ask the hostel
boys, `Go and make pranams to the Swami.` I protested that it should not be
done in his presence. I said, `Maharaj, what are you saying? Should they do
it in your presence?` But he would say, `Hey, you have come from Mysore,`
and turning to the boys would repeat, `Make pranams`. All the boys would
come and make pranams then.
One day he came from the garden late
for lunch and said, `Shankar, I have got pain in my body.` `Why?` I asked.
`I had to bend down and pluck a particular vegetable which had overgrown.`
Maharaj replied. I said, `There are so many brahmacharis and sadhus here,
why did you do it yourself?` He said, `Oh, what do you mean? They are all
fools; they don`t do their work properly. Belur Math sends here only fools!`
(laughter). Maharaj replied, `Yes, you know, I have certain difficulties
...`
In this way, he carried on with me
very humorous talks like a young boy. I found in him this trait along with a
serious mind and compassionate heart. One day he asked me, `How do you find
my Ashrama?` `I find it very fine; I get good sleep here,` I replied. `What?
My Ashrama is meant only for sleep? Swami Paramananda was here. He said that
he got good meditation here,` Maharaj said. I replied, `Well, that is what
he wanted. But I needed good sleep and I got it very well here.`
In this way, two days passed. The day
of departure came. I told him, `Maharaj, you are living in this jungle. So
many devotees come to Belur Math to meet you, a direct disciple of Thakur.
So, if you are in Belur Math, it would be far better. So, please go and stay
in Belur Math.` `Who will look after this centre?` he asked. `Why, Belur
Math will send somebody,` I said. He replied, `Math will send only a fool!`
(laughter). See the fun and frolic of language! `If you come and stay here,
I am prepared to go and live in Belur Math,` he said. I said, `Belur Math
will do the needful; but we want you to be in the Belur Math, so that I and
many others can see you.`
Then the time came for me to take
leave and go to the railway station. One can see the station just a little
away from the Ashrama. I went to his room, made pranams, and said, `Maharaj,
I want your blessings. I am working with the people, especially young
people. Bless me that I become an instrument of Swamiji for inspiring our
young people with Swamiji`s ideas. With your blessing, I am sure, I will get
that capacity. I have not seen Swamiji, but I have met you, and he loved you
very much. Your blessing is for me Swamiji`s blessing.` As soon as I said
it, all that light-heartedness went away from him. He became very grave and
put both his hands on my head and said, `I bless you, I bless you!` I felt a
tremendous feeling of elevation within, some sort of strength arising
within. Then I made pranams and silently came to the verandah, and started
going towards the railway station. And looking back, I saw him standing
there in the verandah, looking towards me, till I disappeared into the
station.
After reaching Calcutta, first I went
to Advaita Ashrama and then reached Belur Math. When I reached the Math, I
found Swami Akhandanandaji had already reached there since he had come
directly, and I, through Advaita Ashrama. He had received a telegram about
Mahapurushji`s cerebral stroke. Seeing me, he said, `Shankar, dekho,
Tarakda`s condition. Is it for this you asked me to come to Belur Math? See
what has happened.` For the first one month, Mahapurush Maharaj was
unconscious and his condition was very serious. But slowly consciousness
returned. Though he was unable to speak, he could smile and move his hands.
Careful nursing had been done. Many packets of ice were kept on the head all
the time, and that made for improvement in his condition.
Swami Akhandanandaji told me, `I have
got some rheumatism. I hear that Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple oil is very
helpful for this.` `I shall send it,` I told him. I then took leave of
Mahapurush Maharaj. He just lifted his hand to bless and indicated by signs
to his dear sevak, Shankar Maharaj (Swami Apurvanandaji), `Give something to
him for Chamundi temple and for Ashrama Thakur offering.` Shankar Maharaj
understood what he meant. He got some money and gave it to me, and I made my
pranams to him and to Akhandanandaji, and left for Mysore. I did the puja in
the Chamundi temple, which Mahapurushji had visited earlier, and in our
Ashrama also, and sent the prasad to him to Belur Math and oil to
Akhandanandaji. Next year, in February 1934, Mahapurush Maharaj passed away
and Akhandanandaji became the President. This was my association with the
President of the Sangha, Mahapurush Maharaj, and the Vice-President, Swami
Akhandananda Maharaj.
When I was in Belur Math as a
brahmachari, Khoka Maharaj, Swami Subodhanandaji, was living in the room
north of Swamiji`s bedroom. I used to spend some time with him. He would be
lying on the verandah facing Ganges, enjoying his hookah like a child. I
would sit by his side. I was very free with him, massaging his belly with my
hand very freely while he would talk to me about various things.
My next visit to the Math was during
Sri Ramakrishna centenary celebrations in 1937 when Swami Vijnananandaji
Maharaj had become the President. He was in far away Allahabad. From Belur
Math, I went to Benaras. I said to myself, `Allahabad is nearby, let me go
to Allahabad and visit Vijnananandaji Maharaj, the present President of our
Sangha.` So, I went to Allahabad from Benaras. I went to the Ashrama, and
made pranams to Vijnananandaji Maharaj on April 1, 1937. A group photo was
taken then with him in the centre and a few devotees and me around. This is
the first photo of his after becoming the President. But that group photo
seems to have been misplaced. That photo is not there in the new album the
Allahabad Ashrama has recently published. That was on April 1. That was also
the day when the Congress Governments assumed power in all the Provinces -
the beginning of Provincial Autonomy under the British.
As usual, I saw that Vijnananandaji`s
pocket was bulging with various things - shaving set, and this and that -
everything was there in that pocket. That was the usual practice of
Vijnananandaji. When I told him, `I have come to receive your blessings,` he
said, `Yes, yes, you have seen me, now go and take drinking water from the
tap and you can go back.` I enjoyed that remark. I had known earlier that he
liked to be alone. But other swamis had arranged my lunch in a Bengali
devotee`s family, and I had the best lunch of my life on that day. Then I
went back to Benaras, and to Calcutta, and from there to Mysore.
Vijnananandaji had earlier visited Madras and Mysore and given initiation to
some devotees in those places.
When I first read the Gospel of Sri
Ramakrishna at the age of fifteen, I developed a great love and respect for
its author `M` or Mahendranath Gupta. So, while at Belur Math for
brahmacharya in 1929, I was happy to get the opportunity to meet him and to
pay my loving respects to him. One day, I went to pay my respects to `M` in
Calcutta, along with two other sadhus. We went upstairs in the evening and
met him and spent nearly three hours, listening to his talk on Sri
Ramakrishna. He spoke about Sri Ramakrishna only, nothing but Sri
Ramakrishna. While taking leave of him, he gave us a basket of fruits and
sweets. As I was taking it, I asked him, `Is it for offering to Thakur?`
`No, no,` he said, `it is for sadhus, sadhus; that is enough. Thakur has
told me to serve the sadhus.` That is the language he used. So, I brought it
and gave it to the Math bhandar for distribution to sadhus.
I had the occasion to meet Swami
Abhedanandaji Maharaj in his Calcutta Ashrama. He talked about his lectures.
I had read his lectures before. I attended his lecture in the Town Hall of
Calcutta during Sri Ramakrishna centenary in 1937. It was a very interesting
lecture. I had also heard Rabindranath Tagore`s lecture in the University
Institute. These are my associations with Thakur`s direct disciples and
Tagore.
So far as Mahapurush Maharaj is
concerned, his guidance has been a tremendous source of spiritual strength
to me. In reply to my letters, he used to write to me, addressing me `My
dear Yati Chaitanya` or `My dear Shankaran`. These letters bear the
handwriting of his secretary, late Swami Gangeshananda or Dvijen Maharaj,
whom once I asked whether these letters contain any lines by him. He
replied, `Never. It was all his (Mahapurushji`s); I only wrote what he
dictated.` From 1927 to 1931, I had written some eight letters to Mahapurush
Maharaj, seeking spiritual guidance; and I used to get suitable replies. I
have given these letters to the Belur Math Ramakrishna Museum. In a letter
written from Benaras in December 1927, Mahapurushji wrote: `I am pleased
with your letter ... If you have faith in yourself and in the grace for Sri
Ramakrishna, you are sure to come out victorious. He helps him who struggles
- that is His nature. Know it always that His helping hand is always guiding
you. Otherwise, you would have been vanquished long ago and become an
ordinary man. So you need not fear ... Through His blessings, the character
of the mind will change and it will be a helping-maid by your side.`
And in another letter of 7-7-1930 from
Belur Math, Mahapurushji wrote to me: `Received your letter and the prasadam
of Sri Chamundi Devi. I am blessing you. You need not come here again so
soon. What is the necessity of spending so much over railway fare? ... Pray
to Sri Guru Maharaj wherever you be, only through His grace you can gain
peace; you need not travel here and there. Do not give up work; try to
combine it with prayer and meditation.`
And so, I never worried about going
here and there for tapasya. I learned to consider that I am in tapasya from
the day I joined the Order and that my life and work in the Order itself is
tapasya. One sentence in one of Swami Vivekananda`s Letters has inspired me
in my personality development: `Learn to combine seriousness with childlike
naivete.` Naivete means saralata.
I shall also mention my contact with
Swami Nirmalanandaji, who, though not recognised as a disciple of Sri
Ramakrishna, I had met him. My first meeting with him was a very sad
experience. In 1927, he came from Bangalore to Mysore en route to Ponnampet.
Swami Siddheshwaranandaji and I went to receive him at the railway station.
The first sentence he uttered on seeing us was, `Belur Math has gone to
dogs`. That was enough for me. I had no more interest in him. I went to
Ponnampet Ashrama a little later and met him once again. Then came, in 1931,
the Bangalore case instituted by Belur Math against his claiming the
Bangalore Math as his personal property. The Math itself did not want to
contest. But eminent lawyers like Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer advised the
Math to contest his claim in the interest of the Organisation as a whole. So
the matter went to the Bangalore Court. And the case was conducted very ably
by the late Swami Amriteswaranandaji (Paresh Maharaj), Assistant Secretary
of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. The case ended in 1935 by the Court
declaring Belur Math as the owner of Bangalore Ashrama. And Swami
Chinmatrananda and I were sent to take initial charge of Bangalore Ashrama.
So, these are my reminiscences of five
of the monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna viz. Swami Shivanandaji,
Akhandanandaji, Subodhanandaji, Abhedanandaji and Vijnananandaji; and Master
Mahashaya.
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Questions and Answers
Swami Dayatmananda
Answers given by the Swami to questions put
by devotees during a spiritual retreat.
Q: Assuming time is limited, what
proportion should be spent on meditation and japa?
A: There are two ways of looking at
this question. The time which we spend in meditation, exclusively keeping a
few minutes in the morning and evening is of great necessity. But real
benefit from meditation does not depend upon the increase or decrease of
time. It depends upon our intensity. This is a psychological fact of which
most of us are ignorant. We always think, "My meditation is not progressing
because my time is so limited, but if I had a lot of time, I definitely
would be able to improve the quality of my meditation." In the beginning at
least, that is not right because each one of us has at any given time a
certain measure of intensity. Whether we sit for ten minutes or half an hour
or three hours we can only take advantage of that intensity. It cannot be
increased all of a sudden. That's why we find sometimes when we have a long
holiday, we try to sit a long time for meditation, but after a few minutes
there comes a bit of fidgeting, the mind becomes very fidgety. So, during
our working time we should try to prepare ourselves for that period of
meditation. Whatever we may be doing, we must try to analyse our mind, try
to keep a watch on our thoughts and try to recollect God, spiritual life and
the incidents which we read from the lives of holy people. This preparation
is absolutely necessary.
As for japa, this is what Sri
Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, and all the direct disciples recommended. Japa is
much more effective. Why? One reason is that we are not fit for meditation.
Meditation needs a long preparation. Unless we are well prepared we cannot
really meditate. We sit in a meditative pose, no doubt. That is not really
meditation.
But japa, that is somewhat easier.
Japa means repetition of God's name, and that has a wonderful effect. There
is also a bit of confusion regarding japa and meditation. You see, the
devotional path always emphasises the repetition of God's name which, with
the development of bhava or devotional feeling, gradually takes the aspirant
towards his Chosen Deity and finally they become merged, which is the last
stage. But meditation is actually a term borrowed from the path of
meditation and contemplation, Raja Yoga. These two meanings have very often
become combined. In devotional terminology, the word `meditation' does not
mean the same thing, so I will try to explain what it is.
Normally, when we meet our devotees,
we advise them "Do japa and meditation." What we mean by this is quite
different from what Raja yogis mean by meditation. Japa means repetition of
God's name with devotion, and meditation means concentration on His Divine
Form. In Raja Yoga meditation means concentration - any object can be taken
for one's concentration and its discipline is to go on concentrating,
suppressing all other thoughts. No emotion there, no discrimination there.
One must only put one's mind on the object which one chooses oneself. In
time one is sure to reach the goal.
Whereas on the devotional path, one
does not kill one's thoughts but concentrates them on a Divine Form. So, in
that sense we do the repetition of God's name and imagine the Form of God at
the same time, and this can be done even while driving a car or any work.
Because you see, while we are driving or doing something else, a portion of
the mind seems to be thinking something else. Perhaps it is planning:
"Tomorrow I shall do that or this," which shows what the mind is capable of
doing. With a little bit of its energies it can perform whatever duties need
to be done while diverting another portion to something else. That secondary
diversion can be directed towards thinking about spiritual subjects, towards
recollecting the various incidents that happened in the lives of the great
saints or repeating the name of God.
If we can thus practise thinking of
God at other times, it becomes a good preparation for meditation. Then when
we return to our homes and sit quietly meditation becomes easy and intense.
Even fifteen minutes of such meditation produces great results.
Q: What is the significance of
arati - waving lights, flowers, cloth etc, to the image?
A: When we perform worship to any
deity, especially in the evening, we do Aratrikam, i.e. vesper service. At
this Centre we wave lights every day and on five special days during the
year - namely the celebrations of the birthdays of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy
Mother, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Krishna, and Durga - we do special Aratrikam.
What is its significance?
According to Hindu cosmology, the
entire universe is created out of five elements: akasha (space), vayu (air),
agni (fire), apah (water), and prithvi (earth). All the things in the
universe are the permutations and combinations of these five elements. When
we are worshipping any particular deity, that deity is considered the
Supreme. Hindus worship millions of deities, but they are not worshipping
millions of different deities. The same One God is manifesting through
different names and in different forms.
So, how do we worship Him? We have a
beautiful saying in Bengali, "Ganga jele Ganga puja" i.e., worship of Ganga
with Ganga. The waters of the Ganges are considered to be very sacred. That
is why, when we worship any god, we use that water to purify items to be
offered to Him. When we want to worship the Ganges river itself, then what
do we do? We take the water from Her and give it to Her. Similarly what can
you give to the Lord? He only has become this whole universe. Now, if you
want to worship Him you want to offer something to Him. What are you going
to do? You take some mud from Him and you give it to Him. You take a flower
from Him, His own creation, and give it to Him.
These are the five items offered
during vespers: lights, water in a conch, a cloth and a flower and lastly,
there is a kind of fan made out of the tail of a special cow found in the
Himalayas. It is called chamari.
These five items signify the five
elements out of which this whole universe is made. That means you are
offering the whole universe including yourself to Him mentally. So these are
the five things that are symbolic and that is the significance of Arati.
Q: Swamiji, after the arati, we
touch the light to our eyes. What is the significance of this?
A: It signifies that our sight is
being purified. The entire universe is supposed to be looked upon as God,
but we don't see it as God, do we? But for instance when we offer fruits ...
suppose you eat a banana when you are hungry. You just eat it and throw away
the skin. But suppose you put the same banana in front of God and sit and
pray and imagine that He has accepted it. And you feel a sense of sacredness
and holiness associated with it. The way you will eat the fruit then will be
quite different from the way you would without offering it, for there is a
difference of sacredness and holiness associated with it. In the same
manner, when we offer the entire universe back to Him, we are only
acknowledging symbolically: "O Lord, I did not know that You Yourself have
become this whole universe. But now, through Your Grace, my eyes of
knowledge are opened and now I look at it in a different way. So everything
becomes sacred to me." That is why the light is considered as sacred. It is
not only the light which has become sacred, the fruits which are offered,
the flowers - everything associated with it - the cloth, even the plates.
This is the beginning of spiritual life, trying to see God everywhere. We
have to start somewhere and that is the significance of it. Reverence comes
with that.
Q: The Jains, when they do arati,
they do not pass the light around. They just do the arati and keep it there.
A: Different traditions have
different ways of religious expression. But all these religious actions have
only one end as their aim, and that is to perceive reality as it is and not
as it appears to us. That Reality is God, therefore we have to see God in
everything.
I remember some incidents in the
life of Ramana Maharshi. He was a man of God. Sometimes dogs used to come to
his ashrama and he would not drive them away. But when someone would take a
stick and try to beat them to make them go away, he would say, "Don't do
that. God has come, covering Himself with this skin, don't you see it? You
have come covered with one type of skin and the same God has come in another
form." That's why he never used to address them in the third person. You
know, in Sanskrit, we have three ways of addressing persons: with reverence,
with a sense of equality, and as an inferior. But Ramana Maharshi always
used to address animals such as squirrels, monkeys, peacocks and all those
animals in the most respectful form. This is the kind of divine sight he
had.
Sri Ramakrishna used to see Divine
Mother even in prostitutes. He saw a cat going into the shrine, and when
others would drive it away, he said, "Mother, you have come in this form.
Please accept these offerings." He fed the cat with the offerings which were
meant for Mother Kali. There was a big complaint against him - that he was
feeding only cats and dogs!
You see, that is the altered vision.
When we become spiritually advanced we see God, that's all. We don't grow
two horns. If we grow horns, that is very bad - it means we are going down!
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Ambapali: A Lady of Pleasure
Who Attained Buddhist Sainthood
Dr.Susunaga Weeraperuma
Whenever a human being with an immoral past becomes a
saint it is always cause for great rejoicing. The news about such a rare
event is so inspiring for all seekers. Such a fundamental inner
metamorphosis holds out hope for us poor mortals on earth.
Let us consider why Ambapali is held in reverence in
the Buddhist world. It was because of Ambapali's good karma in previous
lives that she was reborn as a contemporary of the Buddha. Superficially,
hers looked like a pleasant and exciting life but, in reality, it was a
deeply troubled one. She showed us the truth that everybody has the innate
capacity to transcend the depths of depravity and ascend to the very summit
of the mountain of spirituality. Her life story is fascinating. Why did this
wealthy and renowned beauty, who had been enjoying the love and
companionship of aristocrats and princes, get very sick and tired of her
sorrowful enslavement to the samsaric cycle of births and deaths?
Ambapali was born in the famous city of Vaisali, the
capital of the kingdom of the aristocratic and affluent Lichchavis who were
not only powerful but also proud. We associate the name of the Buddha with
Vaisali because the Enlightened One visited this place several times and
spent his last retreat in a nearby village.
Once a gardener of a Lichchavi ruler discovered a baby
girl lying under an amba (mango) tree. Naturally the infant was called
Ambapali. `Mango-girl' soon became her nickname.
According to tradition, Ambapali had no human parents
but came into existence spontaneously. In bygone lives she had not only
striven after spiritual perfection but had even been a nun, having entered
the Order during the ministry of a previous Buddha called Sikhi. Disgusted
with birth by means of parents, she was very keen on spontaneous rebirth
wherein there is no external human agency whatsoever. That exactly was what
took place in her final reincarnation. The gardener who brought the child to
the city might not have known about the mysterious circumstances surrounding
her birth. Probably the man regarded her as a mere helpless foundling.
It is difficult to provide a simple explanation of her
spontaneous origin. All explanations are the product of our fallible minds.
Man makes theories, only to become enslaved by them. Some questions are
probably beyond the capacity of the mind to understand. Nevertheless, let us
investigate this strange happening. Theists might argue that certain events
seem to happen accidentally. They say that this is only an appearance, since
they are all in actual fact preordained by an unseen omnipotent Being.
Others might maintain that the workings of thought are not at all mysterious
but comprehensible to those who understand the law of karma. Ambapali's
strong-willed determination to be reborn in a specified manner was so
powerful that she got her wish. The karmic seed that she had sown in a
former life simply germinated in a subsequent one.
With the passage of time the girl blossomed into a
young woman of great personal charm and beauty. Soon she became the darling
of the rich and famous. Powerful and privileged men wooed her. When some of
the Lichchavi princes eagerly desired to marry Ambapali, hoping thereby to
have exclusive possession of her, it resulted in bitterness, conflicts and
fighting.
The theme of men fighting over a woman, which is as old
as the hills, inspired Homer's Iliad of classical times. The kidnapping of
Sita by a demon king is central to the plot of Valmiki's masterpiece of
religious literature The Ramayana. But as far as we know, no prince dared to
take Ambapali away, using force. Yet they importuned her with offers of
marriage.
The princes tried hard to settle their dispute by
peaceful negotiation. Apparently their efforts were depressing and
frustrating because of their competing claims to the sole ownership of her.
We do not know if Ambapali herself had had any say in this matter, but these
tactful men handled the delicate situation with considerable diplomatic
skill. They decided to use her equally between them! Soon the damsel was not
exactly a common prostitute but a respectable courtesan who was dispensing
sexual favours only to those who were considered socially superior.
Ambapali was not after all such a bad woman because her
philanthropic disposition and compassion prompted her to make considerable
donations of her wealth to charity. This particular detail is noteworthy
since the virtue of Dana (liberality or alms-giving) is the first in the
list of ten Paramita (perfections or qualities) that lead to the supreme
state of Buddhahood. It is possible to whittle away the ego's urge to cling
to things by parting with one's treasured possessions.
One of Ambapali's distinguished friends was King
Bimbisara of Magadha. He is remembered as the first of the kings who served
and supported the Buddha. Once when the king asked the great sage where he
would like to reside, the Buddha specified that it should be a pleasant and
secluded place that is neither crowded during the day nor too noisy at
night. It must also be airy with a minimum of noise wherein it would be
possible to live in privacy. Thereupon the king donated to the Buddha his
Bamboo Grove with many shady trees. Later in this tranquil Veluvanarama park
the Buddha spent several rainy seasons.
After meeting the famed beauty in person, even this
good King Bimbisara, despite his righteousness and the nobility of his mind,
succumbed to the temptation to make love to her. Consequently, Ambapali gave
birth to a son. The narrative needs to be interrupted now but it will be
resumed later.
While going on his final journey with a large number of
monks, the Buddha resided temporarily at Vaisali. He stayed at Ambapali's
Mango Grove and gave an address to his retinue of monks. "Be mindful and
thoughtful, O bhikkus," he declared, "whatever you do, always have an alert
mind. At all times be watchful when you are eating or drinking, walking or
standing, sleeping or being awake, talking or remaining silent."
The news that the Buddha was staying in her Mango Grove
made Ambapali extremely happy. Who would not take this unexpected visit from
so exalted a sage as a great blessing? Wearing a simple dress without any
jewellery, she approached the Buddha and respectfully sat near his feet. It
is reported that the Buddha thought to himself as follows: "This woman's
heart is tranquil and composed, in spite of her earthly friends and the
kings and princes who treat her with special kindness. This maiden is
thoughtful and steadfast, although she associates with pleasure-loving
persons. How rare she is! This wise woman of true piety has the capacity for
understanding the Truth in its entirety, despite her life of luxury."
Thereafter he preached her a sermon. Her face lit up as
she listened to the Dharma, the liberating teachings of the Enlightened One.
"May I have the honour," said Ambapali, "of inviting
you and the monks for a meal in my home tomorrow?"
The Buddha indicated his consent by being quiet.
The Lichchavi princes heard that Ambapali was going to
have the privilege of entertaining the Buddha in her own home. They reacted
to this piece of news in an envious and resentful way. After dressing up in
all their finery, the princes mounted their beautiful carriages and
proceeded to meet the Buddha in person. But Ambapali in her carriage drove
up against them. The two parties confronted each other.
"Ambapali," they pleaded, "we will give you one hundred
thousand gold coins if you allow us to play host to the Blessed One. Let him
be our guest instead of yours." "No, my lords," replied Ambapali, "even if
you give me the whole of Vaisali and all its territory, I will still not
forego this great honour."
Feeling disappointed but not defeated, the Lichchavi
princes then went to meet the Buddha himself. They felt very happy when the
master delivered a religious discourse. Next the princes invited him for a
meal at their palace. "I have already promised to be Ambapali's guest," said
the Buddha, declining their request. On returning home, the princes were
complaining that they had been outdone by a mere mundane maid!
Taking his begging-bowl with him and accompanied by
monks, the Buddha went to Ambapali's residence early in the morning. She
served them with sweet rice and cakes and various kinds of good food that
had been prepared in her own park. After the meal was over, Ambapali took a
low seat beside the Buddha and declared: "Lord, I present this Mango Grove
to the community of monks that is headed by the Buddha." He accepted the
gift and gave her spiritual instructions.
We have referred to the baby boy who was born in
consequence of King Bimbisara's liaison with his paramour Ambapali. This son
became not only the monk Wimala-Kondanna but also an Arhat. It was after
listening to an inspiring sermon preached by this great son of hers that
Ambapali decided to enter the order of nuns and she subsequently became an
Arhat herself. It is ironic indeed that the very human being who came into
existence because of Ambapali's sexual promiscuity was indirectly
instrumental in her own Liberation from the shackles of Samsara and Karma.
What precipitated her attainment of Nirvana? She took
as her subject of meditation the perishable nature of her physical organism.
In the following excerpts from The Songs of the Sisters
by Usula P. Wijesuriya, which consists of adaptations of Theri Gatha or
Psalms of the Sisters, one can hear the voice of Ambapali who contemplates,
among other subjects, the ephemeral nature of her once enchanting body:
Many aeons ago, in the time of Buddha Sikhi,
Ambapali was an elder nun in his order.
She and the sisters were paying homage to the Bodhi
When one sneezed, spraying spittle on the tree.
"Which whore did that?" demanded Pali,
Maligning the noble sisterhood.
She paid for this insult birth after birth,
In the guise of a courtesan, desired but cheap.
In the time of Buddha Gautama
She appeared 'neath a mango tree,
Her glory surpassing the proud sun at dawn,
Her grace - the swans or woodland fawn;
For she had wished in many past lives
That she be of no mother born.
Her suitors outnumbered bees on honeyed blooms
Or the leaves on her mango tree,
Until the king decreed that she
Would be the hired plaything of the realm.
Her only son, Wimala Kondanna by name,
Followed the Buddha and graced the yellow robe.
He came to tell his mother the selfless love he'd known
And bid her follow him to the Lord.
Ambapali - the love goddess of the state
Approached the Buddha, whose compassionate gaze
Stirred her, as no sensual gaze of prince or merchant
Ever did. And she on her knees prayed
"May I be of your order - dressed in rough shroud robe?
Accept my mango grove, oh sire,
May it be a haven for such as me
who at last has learnt that life's a dream."
Sister Ambapali sat in rapt contemplation,
Of the change the thievish years had wrought
On her once dazzling beauty - and of her power
To lure prince and pauper in the wiles of love.
Years ago my hair was lustrous black,
Framing my face in tasselled curls.
Today it hangs like limp and listless hemp
The Buddha's truth of impermanence is here.
There was a day, when my hair
Dressed in perfumes and flowers,
Combed to silken perfection,
Trained with jewelled pins,
Lured the mighty of this land.
But now - the musty smell of age
Pervades it. The thick locks gone,
And rats' tails would a comparison make.
There was a day - when poets sang
To my rainbow eyebrows. When artists dreamed
Of their perfect arch.
Today they squiggle in a myriad wrinkles
Over forehead, cheek and chin.
What dimmed the lustre in my limpid eyes?
Where went the youthful nose so delicate and fine?
My ear lobes adorned with golden drops and beads
Now reduced to bone and shrivelled skin.
There was a day when my white and sparkling teeth
Smiled alluringly on princes of the realm,
But who would greet me now
Gap-toothed and yellow, like a broken fence.
My voice outdid the nightingale's
Love songs on moonlit nights;
But now it quavers, querulous and old,
Can I but speak - to tell you all I've learnt.
My graceful neck - the wild swans envied me,
Rivalled the smoothness of conches on sea beds,
Today, wrinkled and bent
I croak my message. This is the inevitable truth.
My arms so moulded - alabaster smooth were they,
Now like withered stalks they hang.
My hands - smooth, soft, adorned with rings,
Claws of decrepit birds to mem'ry brings.
My rounded breasts, so firm, so soft, so full,
Swan-like uplifted, claimed proud womanhood.
Now hang they empty between the ribs
Like strainers when the sap is fled.
My body - golden hued and warm,
Now a mass of scales and flabid flesh.
My thighs, once likened to elephant trunks
Are no more than crushed and splintered sugar cane.
Where are my ankles which danced to tinkling tunes
Drawn from jewelled anklets and silver bells.
Where are my feet - soft as silken pads
Now cracked and palsied. I painfully limp.
Such is this form, that age will surely spoil,
Such is fleeting beauty, pillaged by creeping years
Moving on silent feet.
This body, once the envy of the land
Is no more than a house of clay with peeling walls.
Sister Ambapali reached realisation one day
Absorbing all knowledge through the three-fold way,
Non-returner was she, before her days were done,
Temptress of an empire - Nibbana won.
Instead of making vain attempts to speculate about the
Imperishable, Buddhists try to understand the fact that they are strongly
attached to perishable things. While meditating on their sad plight, they
realise that it is their craving for the perishable that prevents them from
realising the Imperishable. One cannot think about the Imperishable. Neither
can it be sought after nor invited.
Buddhist philosophers have wisely avoided trying to
describe Nirvana. Is it really possible to describe it with anything like
accuracy? Any description of Nirvana will only remain a mass of meaningless
words, except for Arhats who have actually attained that exalted state.
Seeing the impossibility of conveying the details of his attainment, the
Buddha approached the question negatively by stating what Nirvana is not.
"That abode," declared the Buddha, "is unborn, uncreated, unmanifested and
unconditioned."
Is there anything in the entire universe that never
changes and lasts forever? Even the sun and stars will someday burn
themselves out. Is there any living being that is not subject to decay and
death? All things and all beings have a transitory nature and hence are
impermanent. Only the truth relating to impermanency is permanent. Ambapali
perfectly comprehended the doctrine of Anicca (impermanence).
Not only the external world but also the inner world of
consciousness is caught up in a whirlpool of ceaseless alteration. Past
memories, thoughts, feelings and sensations keep vying with one another to
rise to the surface. Thoughts come and go with lightning speed so that it is
extremely difficult to keep pace with even a few of them. The constituent
elements of consciousness race across the substratum of pure awareness,
creating in the process the illusion of `mind'. The bundle of thoughts,
collectively taken, give the fictitious impression that there is such a
definite and concrete thing as the mind.
Just as illusory as the concept of `mind' is the
concept of `I'. Whereas both `mind' and `I' appear to exist, in actual fact
they are made up of different elements. `Mind' and `I' are only aggregations
which by themselves have no real and independent existence.
According to the doctrine of Anatta (no-self), there is
no permanent self-existing ego either within the ever-changing bodily and
mental phenomena or outside them. This teaching is closely related to the
above-mentioned principle of Anicca (impermanence). Since the ego is only a
temporary grouping together of attributes, it does not actually exist in
itself. There is a popular Buddhist maxim that there are in fact only bad
qualities, but not bad people. The feeling `I am' or `I exist' is the prime
cause of our samsaric bondage. We are foolishly inclined to believe that the
`I' is the doer; that it is the `I' that suffers; that the `I' treats others
kindly or unkindly; that the `I' is reborn after death; and finally, that
the `I' finds Liberation.
This doctrine has been clearly explained in the
Buddhist classic Visuddhi Magga (Path of Purity).
"There is suffering but no sufferer;
There are deeds but no doer of deeds;
Nirvana is, but not one who enters it;
The path is, but no traveller thereto."
Anatta or egolessness is the central teaching of
Buddhism. Whereas many Buddhist teachings can be found in other philosophies
and religious systems, this particular doctrine is the distinguishing
feature of Buddhism. Consequently, the Buddha has been called the Anattavadi
or Teacher of Impersonality.
Now, Ambapali's painful awareness that her body was no
longer sexually attractive and aesthetically beautiful enabled her to have
practical experience of the Noble Truth of Suffering (Dukkha); by
contemplating the distressingly shocking changes that her once-charming body
had undergone, the law of impermanence (Anicca) dawned upon her; and
ultimately, her crowning understanding that there was absolutely nothing
within her entire body or mind that did not fade away and die, made it
possible for Ambapali to grasp the profound truth relating to no-self or
egolessness (Anatta). She saw with great clarity that everything within her
whole body and mind must sooner or later end up in nothingness for nothing
is permanent. Thus the imperishable peace of Nirvana came by Ambapali.
It is a truism that the only thing certain in life is
death. That man is mortal is a distressing fact of life that we have to come
to terms with sooner or later. Has anyone achieved the state of physical
immortality? Although it is possible to prolong life, as every intelligent
person should, through having the right diet and practising hatha yoga,
including pranayama, has any human being ever succeeded in escaping from the
jaws of death? As soon as we leave the womb we are destined to the tomb, and
during the intervening period the inexorable process of decaying and ageing
keeps going on from moment to moment. Why then do people nowadays want to
disguise their decrepitude by undergoing expensive cosmetic surgery? Why
bother using any make-up? Why this desire to decorate this dirty and dying
lump of flesh and bones?
Buddhists who are serious strive to free themselves
from attachment to their bodies. They practise The Meditation on the Five
Components of the Body, understanding that the body is just a temporary
conglomeration of separate constituent elements that can all fall apart at
any moment and result in death:
Matter is similar to a lump of foam,
Sensations are comparable to bubbles,
Perception is analogous to a mirage,
Mental factors are somewhat the same as a banana plant
And consciousness is like an illusion.
Much in the same vein, they also practise Meditation on
the Impurities of the Body, realising that genuine renunciation of the world
consists in freedom from bodily cravings:
This body of mine consists of hair of my head, hair of
my body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidneys, heart,
liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, stomach, excrement,
brain, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, lymph, tears, serum, saliva, nasal
mucous, synovial fluid and urine.
Much more precious than skin-deep beauty is the inner
beauty of saints who have cast aside their egos. Thus purified, they have
found freedom from resentments. Untroubled by negative thoughts and emotions
that originate in fear, worry, anger, jealousy, hatred, malice, violence or
spite, they radiate an elusive beauty that has an ethereal quality. No words
can describe the immense beauty and inner peace that radiated from Bhagavan
Ramana Maharshi's austere face and eyes. Deep was his absorption in the
Eternal. Being so detached from mundane matters, he most probably considered
his external appearance too trivial.
The early Christians were remarkable in that they
shunned the things of the world and led extremely simple lives. It is
significant that they were not outward-looking but inward-looking. Why did
Jesus denounce the teachers of the law and the Pharisees? Let us reflect
deeply upon the following resounding rebuke from Jesus: "You are similar to
whitewashed tombs that appear beautiful on the outside but on the inside you
are full of the bones of dead men and everything that is unclean" (Matthew
23:27).
The advent of old age can be painfully unbearable for
the vain, especially for famously beautiful actors, dancers or film stars
who were once the cynosure of admiring and eager eyes. Looking back with
nostalgia to their early years, they regret that they are no longer in the
limelight. Some of them, alas, have even chosen to commit suicide instead of
accepting the fact that their bodies and faces are no longer smooth and
charming but rather wrinkled. They have needlessly suffered and paid dearly
for their vanity. Nevertheless, inner peace and joy would surely have been
theirs had they only ceased to pride themselves on their outward appearance,
which in turn would have been the natural consequence of understanding the
great and fundamental law of impermanence (Anicca). That all constituted
things are in a state of perpetual flux or continual change is a cardinal
feature in Buddhism.
There are two main reasons for modern man's moral and
spiritual degeneracy: first, the growing popularity of the materialist view
of life, according to which there is no spiritual world whatsoever since the
only reality is physical matter; second, the hedonistic attitude that
pleasure is the highest good which alone has ultimate value. In a sense our
so-called civilisation has been nothing more than a desperate search for
different degrees and forms of pleasure. So great is the emphasis on
pleasure that, needless to say, people have become very attached to their
bodies. One unfortunate consequence is that they seldom, if ever, ask
themselves the following questions: Am I this body? Why am I attached to it?
Is there nothing other than this physical organism with its never-ending,
ever-changing chain of thoughts and emotions?
In the Apadana one can find a victorious declaration
attributed to Ambapali:
By treading the Buddha's path
I've found the indestructible state.
A real daughter of him am I.
I remember my past lives,
Pure is the superhuman eye,
Being thoroughly cleansed within,
There is no more becoming.
References
1The Songs of the Sisters, by Usula P. Wijesuriya.
Dehiwala: Sridevi Printers, 1994.
Buddhist Dictionary: A Manual of Buddhist Terms and
Doctrines, 3rd Edition, by Nyanponika. Taipei: Corporate Body of the Buddha
Educational Foundation, circa 1987
The Buddha and His Teachings, by Narada. Colombo:
Vajirarama, 1973
Footprints of Gautama the Buddha, by Marie Beuzeville
Byles. London: Rider, 1957
The Gospel of Buddha; compiled by Paul Carus. London:
Alcove Press, 1974
The Life of the Buddha, by Nanamoli. Kandy: Buddhist
Publication Society, 1978
Great Disciples of the Buddha, by Nyanaponika and
Helmuth Hecker. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1997
Psalms of the Early Buddhists: 1 - Psalms of the
Sisters, by Rhys Davids. London: Pali Text Society, 1948
Ambapali, the immoral woman who later became an Arhat,
by Siridhamma (In Dhamma, vol. 22, no.5, December 1997, p.30-32)
Back to
Contents
Swami Rama
Tirtha
John Phillips
Swami Rama Tirtha was born on 22
October 1873 in a poor Brahmin family in the village of Muraliwala in the
district of Gujranwala in West Punjab, which is now part of Pakistan. The
name given him at birth was Goswami Tirtha Rama. His father's name was
Goswami Hira Nand and his mother's name was Niyal Dei (Nihal Devi). The
child became the centre of attraction for the entire village, Hindus,
Muslims and Sikhs alike, because he was not only extremely beautiful and
charming, but also a rare specimen of extraordinary intelligence. His
radiant smiles were simply bewitching.
After passing through primary
education at the village school, he was sent by his father to the district
school in Gujranwala, under the guardianship of his friend, Sri Dhanna Ram
Bhagat. There he won scholarships to help him continue his studies. After
completing his studies with distinction at district level, he had to go to
Lahore for higher education, even against the wishes of his father, who
wanted him to obtain employment somewhere, so as to help his poor family
with his earnings. However, he entered university and took his M.A. degree
in mathematics, passing with distinction and gaining the first place among
the candidates. Throughout this time he remained a quiet, sober,
unostentatious, hard-working, truthful and bright student, with a strong
will and a religious turn of mind.
Goswami Tirtha Rama was afterwards
appointed professor of mathematics in the institution, the Foreman Christian
College of Lahore, where he proved to be a very learned and popular teacher.
Though he was the youngest professor on the staff, he was highly respected
and loved by his seniors, colleagues and the students in general.
To begin with, he was a great
devotee of Sri Krishna, but he later developed into a fully-fledged Vedantin
of the Advaita school of philosophy. He studied the Vedas, the Upanishads,
the Gita, the Yoga-Vasishta, etc. He was also well-versed in Sufism. In
addition he had acquired a thorough knowledge of Western philosophy. When
his dispassion had reached saturation point, he resigned from his position
and took Sannyasa in January 1901, while staying in the garden residence of
Seth Murli Dhar on the banks of the Ganges, near Tehri in the Himalayas. As
a sannyasin, he adopted the name of Swami Rama Tirtha and renounced his
domestic life. He loved the solitudes of the Himalayas and was fond of his
beloved Ganges.
As a Sannyasin, he visited Japan,
where he met Sardar Puran Singh, who developed so much fondness and
admiration for him that he also adopted the path of renunciation and decided
to live and preach Vedanta. From Japan the Swami went to America, where he
stayed as the State guest of the President of the United States for about
two years and preached Vedanta, lecturing on Advaita philosophy and how to
live a higher life of love, light and freedom. In Japan he left Swami
Narayan, his chief disciple who had accompanied him from India. He was then
inspired to visit European countries to preach Vedanta. From America Swami
Rama Tirtha returned to India via Europe, visiting Germany, France, Italy,
Egypt, etc., reaching Bombay in the first week of December 1904.
Wherever he went, he was very highly
respected and admired for his all-round deep knowledge, learned oratory,
loving nature, infectious smile and charming personality. Christians called
him the living Christ, Buddhists saw in him the renunciation of Lord Buddha,
Muslims detected in him the spark of prophet Muhammad and Hindus considered
him to be the very incarnation of Adi Guru Shankaracharya. He was able to
keep his vast heterogeneous audiences spellbound by the magnetic charm of
his eloquence. He had an attractive aura of peace intermingled with divine
ecstasy which exercised a subtle influence over all who came into his
presence. He was also a visionary poet, an ardent social reformer, a staunch
patriot, a practical philosopher and a saint who lived almost always above
the level of body-consciousness and mind-consciousness, merged in the
realisation of the universal Self. Whenever he spoke, he spoke from the
depths of his own spiritual experience. He never uttered a single word which
he had not himself experienced to be true. He was all love, he was the
personification of love. Even wild animals did not dare to harm him, because
he loved all.
With all that, he had a very short
span of life of only thirty-three years. On 17 October 1906, below the
Simlasu palace of the Maharajah of Tehri, his mortal body was swept away in
the current of the swift-flowing river and disappeared into a nearby
whirlpool.
After Rama Tirtha's tragic death,
Swami Narayana, his chief disciple, thought that his lectures and writings
should be compiled and published. This proved to be an immense task, but by
determined effort he succeeded in publishing the lectures in five volumes.
Rama Tirtha was not only a religious
leader, but also a social reformer. According to his teachings, if a man
cannot feel his unity with his own countrymen, he can never realise his
unity with God. He believed in self-reliance, which can be achieved by
developing self-confidence. No one can help a man who does not want to help
himself. Rama Tirtha's secret of success was his own zeal and capacity to
work with sincere devotion and all-round awareness.
In his view the purpose of life is
to obtain absolute freedom. He says: "Be not a slave or a bondsman. Be free
in spirit. Believe not in any dogmas for their own sake, believe not in any
ideal, howsoever lofty. Obey only the dictates of your own conscience, the
promptings of your inner voice. Judge for yourself, be not guided by the
wise counsels of even the greatest luminaries of mankind, such as Rama,
Krishna, Buddha, Christ or Shankara, unless you are convinced to the core
that what they preached is Truth and Truth alone. If so, act up to their
theories. If, however, their dogmas go against your personal experiences,
throw them overboard and judge for yourself. You are your own judge. That is
the true spirit of Practical Vedanta."
Rama Tirtha asks us not to have
blind faith and advises us to accept a theory in an unprejudiced way, only
if and when we are fully convinced of it. There are a variety of ways and
means to achieve the final goal. We should follow only those ones which suit
us best. He would say, "Even if three hundred and thirty billion Christs,
Mohammeds or Krishnas appear in the world, it will do you no good, unless
you yourself undertake to remove the darkness within you. Be free. You are
the Sun of the Suns."
According to Rama Tirtha,
renunciation is the essence of Vedanta. By renunciation he does not mean
that you should leave your family, wife and children and go into the forest.
Renunciation requires you to give up your attachments to worldly objects.
There is no happiness in these worldly objects. Happiness is within you.
Renunciation means giving up worldly desires, which are endless. You are the
king of kings. Why should you then suffer from any cause due to selfishness,
the biggest sin? Rise above the body and mind consciousness. You are not
this body. You are the master of the body, mind and intellect. Why should
you then identify yourself with them? Renunciation requires you to give up
the names and forms of sense objects and see only the underlying Reality
which you are. If you practise the teachings of Vedanta continually in the
right direction, you become one with the whole, you are free in this very
life.
When giving talks Rama Tirtha often
kept his audience's attention by telling stories illustrating some point of
philosophy or religion he wished to put over to them. When speaking in San
Francisco on 26 January 1903, he told the following story:
Three boys were given one five cent
piece by their master to share among themselves. They decided to purchase
something with the money. One of the boys was English, the other a Hindu and
the third a Persian. None of them understood the language of the other, so
they had some difficulty in deciding what to buy. The English boy insisted
on purchasing a water-melon. The Hindu boy said, "No, no, I would like to
have a hindwana." The third boy, the Persian said, "No, no, we must have a
tarbooz." Thus they could not decide what to buy. Each insisted upon
purchasing the thing which he preferred, disregarding the inclinations of
the others. There was quite a wrangle among them. They were quarrelling and
walking through the streets. They happened to pass a man who understood
these three languages - English, Persian and Hindustani. That man was amused
over their quarrel. He said he would decide the matter for them. All three
referred the matter to him and were willing to abide by his decision. This
man took the five cent piece from them and asked them to wait at the corner.
He himself went out to the shop of a fruit-seller and purchased one big
water-melon for the five cent piece. He kept it concealed from them and
called them one by one. He first asked the English boy to come and, not
allowing the young boy to know what he was doing, he cut the water-melon
into three slices, took out one part, handed it to the English boy and said,
"Is not this what you wanted?" The boy was highly pleased; he accepted it
cheerfully and gratefully, going away frisking and jumping and saying it was
what he wanted. Then the man called the Persian boy and handed him the
second piece, asking him if it was what he wanted. The Persian boy was
highly elated and said, "This is my tarbooz! This is what I wanted!" He went
away very happy. Then the Hindu boy was called, the third piece was handed
to him and he was asked if that was the object of his desire. The Hindu boy
was well satisfied. He said, "This is what I wanted; this is my hindwana."
Why was the quarrel caused? What was it that brought about the
misunderstanding among the lads? The mere names, nothing else. Take off the
names, see behind the veil of names. There you will find the three different
names - water-melon, tarbooz and hindwana - imply one and the same thing. It
is one object that underlies them all. It may be that the Persian tarbooz,
the water-melon that grows in Persia, is slightly different from the
water-melon they have in England, and it may be that the water-melons of
India are slightly different from the water-melons of England, but in
reality the fruit is the same. It is one and the same thing. Slight
differences can be ignored.
Just so is Rama Tirtha highly amused
at the quibbles, quarrels, misunderstandings and controversies between
different religions; Christians fighting Jews, Jews in conflict with
Muslims, Muslims combating Brahmanas. Brahmanas finding fault with the
Buddhists, and the Buddhists returning the compliment in a similar manner.
It is highly amusing to see such quarrels. The cause of those quarrels and
misunderstandings is chiefly in names. Take off the veil of names, strike
out the curtain of names, see behind them, look at what they imply, and
there you will not find much difference.
Rama Tirtha was a contemporary of
Swami Vivekananda. It was on Swamiji's mission in the Punjab that he came
across Rama Tirtha in Lahore. The latter was then Mr Tirtha Ram Goswami, a
professor of mathematics at one of the colleges. Some say that it was as a
result of his meeting with Swamiji that Mr Tirtha Ram took sannyasa and
assumed the name of Swami Rama Tirtha. He personally admired Swami
Vivekananda immensely and invited him and his disciples to dine at his
residence. After dinner Swamiji sang a song beginning with the words "Where
God-consciousness resides, there is no desire; where there is desire, there
is no God-consciousness". Tirtha Ram himself wrote about this: "His
melodious voice made the meaning of the song thrill through the hearts of
those present." He placed his library at Swamiji's disposal, but of the
numerous volumes in it, Swamiji chose only Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman -
whom he used to call "the Sannyasin of America".
One evening Swamiji and several
others went out for a walk. The party soon broke up into several groups.
Rama Tirtha later wrote: "In answer to a question, I was explaining, `An
ideal Mahatma is one who has lost all sense of separate personality and
lives as the Self of all. When the air in any region absorbs enough of the
solar heat, it becomes rarefied and rises higher. The air from different
regions then rushes in to occupy this vacuum, thus setting the whole
atmosphere in motion. So does a Mahatma marvellously infuse life and spirit
into a nation through self-reform.' The Swami's group happening to be silent
at the time, he overheard this part of our conversation and stopped
suddenly, and emphatically remarked, `Such was my guru, Paramahamsa
Ramakrishna Deva'."
A very friendly relationship sprang
up between Swamiji and Tirtha Ram. Before he left, Tirtha Ram presented
Swamiji with a gold watch. Swamiji kindly accepted it, but put it back in
Tirtha Ram's pocket, saying, "Very well, friend, I shall wear it here, in
this pocket."
Back to
Contents
Self
Control: Forcible or Gradual?
A lecture given by Swami
Adiswarananda at the
Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, Bourne End on
October 23, 1998
The subject we are going to discuss
is self-control - should it be gradual or forcible? Firstly, self-control
means control and mastery over the mind, senses and the body. A person who
has control is a sage. One who has not is a slave. One who has control has
peace, happiness, tranquillity and also self-knowledge. Thoughts, delusions
and illusions harass one who lacks it.
Of the supporting texts of Vedanta
on this subject, one is the Bhagavad Gita. In one chapter it says, "One who
has no self-control has no peace; one who has no peace has no happiness, and
one who has no contact with the true Self has no self-control." Happiness is
not dependent on having things or not having things. It is an interval
between the cessation of one desire and the start of another - a gap, a
moment of desirelessness.
Again, the Mahabharata raises this
question in the chapter on the enchanted bull. Yaksha, a voice without a
form asks Yudhisthira a number of questions. One of them is, "Who is happy?"
In answer, the king says, "One who is free from debts and obligations." Then
"one who stays home" which means one who has contact with her true Self. We
are not home. All the time we are moving around, loafing around. The third
is "one who eats a scanty meal at the end of the day," meaning one who has
mastery over the palate.
The third text, the Bhagavatam, says
"The deluded person is troubled by two urges: the palate and the sex
instinct. Of these, the palate is most important. One who has conquered the
palate has also overcome the grosser instinct."
So, three supporting texts have been
cited on the necessity of self-control or self-mastery, which is essentially
control over the mind. We know the mind is our second body and the
interpreter. The mind is our constant companion; we cannot get rid of this
fellow. Even in dreams, he goes with you. He is your friend and your foe.
When regenerate, it is a friend; when angry, it is your worst enemy. And,
all you can trust about the mind is that you cannot trust it.
Self-knowledge is the means, then.
We perceive the world through the prism of the mind, so the world is in the
mind. "Mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation." We
are born in the mind, we live in the mind, and we die in the mind. But the
mind is not in our control.
An average person, it is said, is
born crying, lives complaining and dies disappointed. The mind is restless.
One is all the time looking for novelty, for change. We get bored with
things very easily. We are unable to see things in the proper perspective.
We cannot think properly. Thinking give you a clear perception.
George Bernard Shaw once remarked,
with his usual caustic wit, "Thinking is rare. The average individual
perhaps thinks once or twice a year. I have made a distinguished career by
thinking as often as once a week."
We do not think because the mind
does not give us opportunity to do so. Not only is our mind restless, but
our body is too. We know that everything is constantly vibrating, but when
the mind is restless the vibrations are visible. They affect the whole body.
The mind experiences three states:
waking, dream and deep sleep. The mind is a migratory creature. It creates
illusions, dreams, and fancies. It creates variety, diversity. It limits the
illimitable, divides the indivisible, and wants to attain the impossible. It
likes imitation, not truth. The three states are like actors on a stage,
always coming and going. Even when the play is over, the stage is illumined.
That is the light of the Atman.
Again, the mind also has three
modifications: sattva, rajas and tamas - tranquillity, restlessness and
inertia - rotating all the time. These are the three qualities of mind.
Everybody experiences them. One who can control them is called a free soul,
a knower of the Self. The gunas are present in each person. We need them.
When you return from a day's work you badly need inertia, tamas. In the
morning, you need rajas, activity. The third quality, sattva or tranquillity,
is what you need when you go to meditate or pray. You invoke it.
You probably know the six centres of
consciousness. The mind is constantly rising and falling from one to
another. When you enter the prayer room, you try to raise the mind to the
fourth centre, the heart. The body is like a six-storey house where the
master of the house lives in the basement. Living in the dark, dingy
basement, he has developed a taste for it. The mind has a remarkable
capacity for developing a taste for anything. If you keep a person in a
place with a strong smell, after some time that person will grow so
accustomed to it that he would be offended by sweeter fragrances. The
average mind remains pinned down to the three lower centres - the bottom of
the spine, the region of the organ of generation, and the navel. At this
level the whole world of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell are only
sending information about the palate and sense pleasure. Nothing else.
However, the same mind, when it rises to the fourth level, appears
homogenous and unified. It gives spiritual impulses and gradually it rises
higher and higher. The universe of names and forms and diversities and
dichotomies gradually dissolves into a unified mass.
When the mind falls, what should one
do? Three responses are possible: give in, give up or fight. Giving in does
not solve the question. If we are depressed, giving in only perpetuates the
problem. If we give up, where can we go? We cannot jump out of our minds. We
do not have the capacity to give up, and if we force ourselves to give up it
will only create a heightened awareness of the object coveted. If we fight,
whom do we fight? Ourselves, and this is extremely tiring.
Some people say we should not
control our impulses, that self-expression is best. This is the Freudian,
Adlerian approach. They say that any form of control is unhealthy,
unnatural. It makes a person false. One should have expression. Any control
creates neurosis. That means you eat whatever you like, do whatever you feel
like doing, think whatever you like to think. Control creates inhibition and
inhibition can lead to exhibition.
Others say that the human being has
become what it is today by exercising control. In the animal stage of
development, both mind and soul are lost in the body. In the human stage the
mind begins to assert control over the body - that's why it is human. In the
spiritual stage, the soul is trying to free itself of the mind. Through
prayer, austerity, penance and pilgrimage you are trying to extricate
yourself from the bondage of the mind. Instinct used by the sub-human makes
raw impulse. Reason is advanced by controlling the raw impulse and purifying
it, and intuition appears after you have overcome reason by purifying it. So
therefore control is necessary.
In any walk of life you need
control. When you drive you need speed control. When you talk you need
control. In every field this is true. When you stand up you need control. So
there is nothing wrong with control. It is a natural instinct to exercise
control. But why control? Both Vedanta and Yoga say: giving in does not
work; giving up creates neurosis. Reason tells us: face the mind, the
restless mind. The mind is material. It does not have its own consciousness.
It is activated by the consciousness borrowed from the Self, the only
conscious entity whose presence or absence makes us either living or dead.
The body is an extension of the mind. The mental body is just like the
physical body. The face is the index of the mind, it is very true. Physical
features may indicate the texture of the mind. In The Gospel of Sri
Ramakrishna you may read that each person is born with a blueprint of his or
her own mind and each incarnation is to give expression to some urgent
desires for that.
The mind has a big shopping list. It
is always turbulent like the ocean, constantly breaking into waves. All the
time it is moving and changing. It never becomes controlled unless you
control it. Many people think that it will become controlled when we get
old. However, when you are young you can keep the mind down by exercising
your nerves and muscles. When you get old, you are done for. You are
tormented. All the desires are there but they have not been trained. The
cobras are there but their fangs have not been taken out. It is an illusion,
an untruth that with age turbulence goes away.
Both Vedanta and Yoga think that the
stuff of the mind is a Sanskrit word called samskara. Samskara is thought
potency. This works in the following way: when you think a thought
repeatedly, it first affects the intellect, then the emotion, then the
biochemistry. Then it goes deep down to the glands and hormones. It
therefore alters the biochemistry and remains lying deep down there. Running
away cannot obliterate these samskaras. Distance cannot annihilate them, old
age cannot reduce them, and reason cannot uproot them. Reason requires pure
mind, which is very rare. Analysis does not help, nor does expression.
To bring peace and tranquillity to
the mind the samskaras must be neutralised by counter-samskaras. That is the
famous thesis of Patanjali - pratipaksha bhavana. Counter-samskaras must be
created against each samskara. Samskaras are like marks on stone, they last
forever, but they can be neutralised. This is where the practice of
self-mastery comes from. You must fight bad habits with good new habits. You
can combat a thought with a thought. Speech must be controlled by speech. It
is an all out response. Bad habits cannot be neutralised by good thought.
They cannot go away all of a sudden. If you drive a screw into the wall with
thirty turns, you cannot pull it out without breaking the wall. You must
unscrew it thirty turns.
This is also the teaching of the
Bhagavad Gita. A samskara is formed by three organs: by talking about it, by
thinking about it and by acting according to it. The three acting together
make samskaras. That which you think only can be driven away by
counter-thought, but when the three are joined, it affects the glands and
hormones. You must be aware that when certain thoughts arise, the whole
system becomes inflamed. When such thoughts have an immediate effect, it
means we have practised them for a long long time in this or previous lives.
We do not need a prophet to tell us.
We have to uproot them by developing
counter samskaras. How is this done? The Yoga system gives one method and
Vedanta gives another. Yoga says you should be forcible. Life is short,
samskaras are deep, mind is perverted, and reason is weak. You are trying to
make a tiger non-violent by feeding him a vegetarian diet. Forget about it.
The logic of the Yoga system maintains that the mind is material. Its impure
conditioning is mechanical and reason is too weak to overcome its
perversion. It is also difficult to know the nature, depth and extent of the
impurities. All we know is that the mind is restless and turbulent. It is
being expressed by unevenness of breath, changes in our biochemistry and
restless movement of our body. The mind is never controlled unless you
control it. Hence control must be forcible. Take the bull by the horns.
Vedanta says, "Feed the bull with green grass. Then you will ride the bull."
Life is short. When the bull will become pacified, we don't know. We will be
dead by then. So take the bull by the horns.
The Yoga system prescribes the
eight-fold practice which you know - yama/niyama. The first five are
external and the last three internal. It asks for the rise of the whole mind
to overcome the obstacles and with unwavering determination. Educating the
mind to give up its old ways is a slow process. Auspicious desires are not
always forthcoming. The journey to the goal is never completed unless we
hasten our steps.
The Yoga system relies more on
practical aspects and is distinguished from the aspect of dispassion.
Patanjali refers to dispassion (vairagya) as a complementary means for
control of the mind, not primary. It seeks to develop reason through
training the exercise of willpower. It seeks to arouse then modify our
sub-conscious indirectly through the help of regulation of breath, posture
and diet.
Modern psychology explains how the
conscious mind is modified and controlled by the sub-conscious. But the Yoga
system further shows us how we can modify the sub-conscious by conscious
effort; how repeated exercise of the will at the conscious level can
influence the sub-conscious depths and modify them permanently. By
controlling and disciplining the manifested effects of impurities, it goes
to the root of all impurities to overcome them. The Yoga system says, "I am
only aware of the effects of these impurities in the restlessness of my mind
and body, but I do not know the cause. However, I do not need to speculate
because by controlling the effect I can overcome the cause".
Our consciousness is in deep slumber
at the base of the spine. It must rise to the upper centres. For that reason
the blockage in the canal of consciousness, sushumna, has to be cleared. The
yoga system prefers the dredging of the canal rather than dissolving the
blockage, whereas Vedanta prefers to dissolve. Posture, diet and pranayama
are the means to dredge. Conversion of energy to ojas provides the sustained
strength to dredge. To dredge you have to have strength, for that needs
energy. Spiritual energy is refined, giving you determination. The
manifestation of yoga powers generates confidence in the mind.
We have a tendency in Vedanta to
decry the occult as obstacles, but the Yoga system says no. Some power is
necessary to encourage us. If you are a yogi, you must have something -
otherwise, what are you doing? So these powers give you faith and
confidence. Reason can never uproot miseries and dispel ignorance. To
accomplish the task the whole person - physical, vital, mental - must rise
against the permanent tendencies of the mind that block the way.
The Yoga system is suited to those
in whom reason has not yet established a natural supremacy. That is
Patanjali's view. Vedanta says that things are easier said than done.
Vedanta maintains that an impure mind cannot be made pure by working the
reverse way. It says one should go to the root. The Yoga system tries to
overcome the subtle by controlling the gross which is manifest. Vedanta says
no, don't try to hurry. Vedanta relies more on the practice of dispassion
and believes that the primary urge in all of us is the need to reach the
Divine. It says we should overcome the gross by controlling the subtle, for
the subtle exerts more power over the gross. It is therefore the easier and
shorter way.
Vedanta says one cannot generate
spiritual longing through diet, posture or pranayama. It makes the process
mechanical. Can you make a person spiritual by giving him a diet and special
exercises? Withdrawal of the mind is not possible unless the mind
co-operates in the process. Forcible control can rouse the mind untimely,
before spiritual longing has come and before spiritual motivation for making
the journey has become sufficiently strong. This is an important point.
The mind is like a giant, sleeping.
You rouse it by pranayama, which is forcible, but the motivation to proceed
has not developed. It lacks the longing for Truth and love of God. What will
you do with such a mind that has been roused? It will rise up against you
and destroy you. So don't rouse the mind. Swami Vivekananda said, "A mind
that has been roused a little is very dangerous. Once it is roused, you have
to keep it going. If not, it will finish you." Through prayer, austerity and
reason you build platforms so when reactions come you will not fall deep
into the lower pit but will be held by the platforms.
So we must not try to hasten to
rouse the mind by forcing it for it may prove self-destructive. True
spiritual practice is prayer, contemplation and worship. As the mind begins
to move upwards, we build platforms. Vedanta believes in gradual control so
that the mind does not rebel. Its process is the way of least resistance.
Vedanta prescribes the practice of silence, not restraint of speech.
Solitude is interior, not external - the real posture in which the mind
flows towards Brahman spontaneously. Absorption in Brahman is real
meditation. It is achieved by directing the mind towards Brahman, not fixing
the mind on the tip of the nose.
Absorption of the mind in the Atman,
knowing that It alone abides, is called withdrawal. Steadiness in dwelling
on the thought of Brahman is called concentration. All obstacles are
overcome only by dissolving the mind in the ocean of the Infinite Self. By
thinking of the object of the mind, the mind gets identified with it. By
thinking of a void, it really becomes blank, and by thinking of Brahman it
attains to perfection.
So we must know that to change
habits, we must proceed slowly. There is no use in imitation or taking up
gimmicks. We tend to think we should be doing everything quickly because we
live in an age where patience is rare. The "gimmick" in Vedanta is humble
prayer, aligning oneself to be the receptacle of divine consciousness, not
mere lip-service. Through prayer, worship and holy company we can maintain a
balance in our lives that will prepare us for real spiritual life.
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Some Sayings of My Guru
Swami Vidyatmananda
A transcript of a talk given at our Hollywood Centre
in 1981. The author, a much-loved Swami of the Order,
passed away recently.
It is with the most profound emotion
that I find myself in this position in which for many years I had the great
joy in seeing the Swami Prabhavananda.
I remember clearly the first time I
came here and viewed from where you are sitting now him sitting here, on a
wooden box, a kind of elevated asana (seat). Probably it was in December of
1948. I walked in that door, took a seat on the aisle, looked at this
chapel, with its marvellous candles and decorations, and the smell of
incense, and I thought "Well, well, well!" (Laughter) Because thirty-two or
thirty-three years ago Hindu things were simply not as common as they are
today, and I was a person who had a conservative religious background.
People were not making the change from protestantism or atheism in those
days to Vedanta with as much facility as they are now. And I wondered,
"Well, can I make the great modification of that sort." I had read, of
course, the books. I was convinced that the Truth was truly to be found in
Vedanta. And later, of course, I realised that the Teacher here was one
capable of helping find that Truth.
The real conversion occurred on New
Year's Eve that same year. We had then, as I believe one still has - and we
have taken it up since then in Gretz - a custom of doing arati* at midnight.
And I was here. And as the arati was performed, and we could hear the sound
of jubilation rising from below (laughter) I thought, "Well, I guess I've
made it to the other side." (all laugh) Particularly that marvellous "Chant
the Name of the Lord and His Glory, especially the lines
That my heart may burn away with its
desire
And the world without Thee is a
heartless void.**
That I knew was really the Truth,
but to realise it, of course, that's something else. That really takes
years.
So, that was how it all began, and I
never thought I would be here in this position, saying these words, but I'm
thankful that I am.
So what shall we talk about this
evening? I was reflecting on it all afternoon and I thought, well, all of us
here have either known Swami Prabhavananda or heard about him, and why not
simply recall together as old friends some of the things that he taught us,
some of his sayings which I remember, and so I've made a list of half a
dozen or so to remind you, and remind myself.
I had an interesting experience
yesterday when arriving at the Immigration. The Immigration officer said,
"Well, what is your occupation?"
Now, as we reach a certain point in
our life we really begin to ask ourselves, what is our occupation? Because
what we think had been all these years, we find it really isn't at all.
So I thought, well, what am I? Am I
a farmer? It's true that we have a farm at Gretz and we do quite a lot of
farm work, but I wouldn't say I'm a farmer.
Am I a hotel-keeper? (laughter) That
is perhaps a bit more to the point (all laugh). Because, as you know, Gretz
welcomes people who come to make retreats there, and we try to make them as
comfortable as we can.
Am I a writer? Well, maybe a little,
but not really.
A speaker? Certainly not.
An animateur? That's the word in
French. You can say it easily in English - animater. It's a very good French
word and it means the kind of person that in an organisation, or in an
association, sort of makes things go. You might say the sports-master on a
cruise ship would be an example of an animateur. Yes, to some extent.
Then I thought, No, I'm none of
those things. What I am is - the only thing I am - a devotee. We finally end
up realising that all else is of little interest, of passing interest, but
our occupation as well as our avocation is to be a devotee. You realise that
at a certain point.
So let me look at the list I made of
things that we have learned.
After I took sannyas, Swami told me
the following: "Nothing - remember, nothing bad can ever happen to you
again. It may be bad, it may seem bad, but it won't be bad for you."
Now that's a very curious statement.
Because it seems to contradict itself. But if you reflect a little bit on it
you see exactly what it means. It means this - that, having put yourself in
His hands, having taken your stand as a devotee - both as occupation and
avocation - whatever happens, we must believe and know, must be good for
you.
And, of course, as you go on with
your life you realise that He is pulling all the strings. Events that seem
impossibly terrible at the moment - disasters - at the moment, somehow or
another twist themselves around - or you get twisted around, that's probably
the case - so that later on, well, I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Another saying, and you can who knew
him, can hear that, hear him saying that, "Feel for others... Prema, you
must learn to feel for others." Hum? Now, what does that mean? That's a very
difficult thing to do. Because we are always acting and reacting in terms of
our own point of view. And if the other doesn't seem to fall in with that
point of view, or seems to be in opposition to it, or seems to be ignorant
of it, we immediately consider that person at fault. Feel for others means
somehow or other trying to think through his brain, see through his eyes. Of
course that doesn't come quickly or easily and it seems to me that as we go
on suffering in our own lives and realise how often we are wrong, we begin
at last to see how other people feel about certain things, and sympathy
which is love - or love which is sympathy - somehow begins to stir a bit in
us.
Now I'm going to give you a very
astonishing saying. It is extremely cryptic. And I won't even try and
interpret it. It happened - I heard it - on an occasion when Swami asked me
to go with him to the High Sierras as his cook - which was a very foolish
thing for him to have done (all laugh). But, of course, a great privilege
for me. And as you know - rice does not boil at the same temperature, or
water doesn't boil at the same temperature in the High Sierras as it does at
this level. So, the main ingredient of his diet was somewhat doubtful in
terms of its being properly boiled. And after one day or two days of
suffering in silence Swami said to me in great irritation, "If a person
doesn't know how to cook rice he doesn't know how to do anything!" (long
laughter)
Another curious thing I heard Swami
say more than once, "I've never suffered in my life." Now, of course we know
that he suffered, but he did say that. This was because I wrote in my very
freshman days here an article called "Suffering" and his response later on -
not at the moment (he was very encouraging in the early days about things
like that) - but later he did say "I've never suffered a moment in my life".
Now how can we interpret that?
Well, we can interpret it, of
course, according to a high level, because basically if one is ... has his
feet planted firmly on his faith, and one has taken refuge in his faith,
then he does not suffer in the same sense as people who are simply torn by
the slings and arrows of everyday life.
But as I've reflected on that, it
can come to us also if we make our life, if somehow we get our life
organised. We suffer because we have incompatible desires. We are torn by
all sorts of alternating currents.
So I come to the concept of
sacrifice. I think that until we somehow or other make up our minds that we
are a living sacrifice, we will suffer. But when we come to the point, if we
are so lucky, that we can say, "All right, I'm not holding anything back and
I am not trying to preserve a particular situation or position or privilege,
or expect the appreciation and even the approval of others - then our life
reaches a point where there isn't very much conflict in it, in so far as
human relations are concerned and incompatible desires.
And then a certain kind of
happiness, a kind of low-key happiness, not the kind we were looking for
before, but a kind of low-key happiness begins to take over.
The existentialist says, "I am
responsible for everything in this universe." Well, we say, "I am not
responsible for anything in this universe. I am simply here to serve."
I often tell our boys in Gretz, who
don't want to do this or don't want to do that, or refuse to do this or
hesitate about doing that, "As long as you're holding yourself back, you
won't be happy." Just make yourself a sacrifice. Sooner or later you will
have to.
And then, as you can say with our
Swami Prabhavananda, "I've never suffered a moment in my life."
I'd like to quote a saying of
Mahatma Gandhi. He says (reading recently his visit to Romain Rolland in
Switzerland in 1931) - and he and Romain Rolland had a wonderful
conversation (all of which is recorded in Romain Rolland's Journals) and
Gandhi said, "Truth brings joy." He said, "First of all I felt that Truth
was God, then I came to see that God is Truth. And Truth brings joy. If it
doesn't it isn't Truth." If it doesn't bring joy it isn't Truth.
The next saying I wish to bring back
to your attention is one everyone knows perfectly well, "Meditate, meditate,
meditate." And I would add that that certainly includes doing japam.* I'm a
great believer in japam. It was forced upon me and - but I must say it was
effective.
You can easily test what meditation
does for you. Let us say that - now I'm not talking about it to bring you
into a state of ecstasy and Nirvana. I'm talking about the daily practice of
regularly going and sitting.
Suppose you go on vacation. Your
whole routine is upset. So, in the morning, of course, instead of going to
your room where you meditate or to the chapel, well, you decide to take a
swim. And in the evening, instead of thinking that six o'clock is the time
to be quiet for an hour, well, this is a good time to go down to the
restaurant or, whatever it is, horseback riding, or go for a walk. You find
after a few days - this has happened to me so I know - that a certain
finesse, a certain edge to your recollection, becomes a bit blunted. And you
think, "Well, I think I will be glad to get back to my regular practices
again."
Because distractions don't distract.
That is a conclusion that one comes to, distractions don't distract.
Then I remember him saying - very
often to me, perhaps oftener to me than to some - "Always be positive." This
is a very simple saying, yet how easy it is not to be positive. How easy it
is to be negative and I think particularly when we criticise mentally or
verbally others, we are going against this suggestion to always be positive.
Silence is better if one can
possibly keep silent.
I get a great inspiration from - on
this particular subject - from Swami Ritajananda who is very positive. We
have - I give you one example. There is in France a very well-known popular
singer who is easily compared in France to big name singers here. He's made
many records, popular records. And like some others, his success was too
much, and he went through a nervous breakdown, divorce, drugs and the whole
thing. He has no interest whatsoever in religion, but somewhere or other he
heard that there was a holy man - not a holy man, a seer in Gretz, and so he
began to come. Simultaneously going to a psychiatrist.
Swami had received him everytime,
anytime, night or day, anytime he wants to come and it's always the same - a
desperate story of depression and lack of self-confidence, failure in the
midst of success ... And I always say, "Well, Swami, haven't you had enough
of this now. There doesn't seem to be any improvement." "No, there doesn't
seem to be any improvement - but he may change. Always again the same - but
he may change. He hasn't yet - but he may change." So that's always being
positive.
...to call, but we somehow feel that
calling and talking may help them. And here in the middle of the night I
would often answer such telephone calls. And I must say that the French at
least don't call in the middle of the night (laughter). But they call, and
you may be amused by this story which is at least partially true (laughter).
Swami always said, "If someone asks
you to pray for them, what do you do?" I asked, "What do you do?" He said,
"Tell them that you will pray for them, and mentally put them at the feet of
the Lord." And this has always been my practice and still is.
So there was a call from a woman,
and she said, "My teenage son is very terrible toward me. He even hits me.
And will you please do something?"
So I thought, well, I will do what I
had been taught to do and I said, "Please tell me your name, not your family
name but your first name, and the name of your son, not the family name, I'm
not interested. And I will pray for him." So she told me her name, and she
told me his name, Henri (Henry).
"Yes, madame, I shall do it."
"Well, sir, would you also pray for
Francois?"
Well now (Swami laughs) it's twice
as many. "Yes, if you wish."
"And also Jean-Pierre." (all laugh)
It seems there's quite a big family there.
"And Eileen, (laughter), and the
twins, Christian et Christienne."
So I did as requested - put them
all, this entire group (laughter) at the feet of the Lord.
Then she called back sometime later
and she said, "I want to tell you that things are really very much better."
(You see, it gives confidence to the people themselves. That, perhaps, is
the psychology of it.)
But she said, "It's Bruno that's
causing the trouble now."
I said, "Bruno? But you didn't
mention Bruno!" (all laugh)
And she said, "I know, and that's
why he's acting so badly." (long laughter)
Well, here's another one. You've all
heard this. "Oh, what patience it takes! Oh Prema, what patience it takes!"
Now, I have heard that from him, and
since I have been in a position of - to a very slight extent - trying to
look after a few boys, young novices at our own centre, this saying has
repeated itself in my mind many times: what patience it takes!
You see, evolution is a very slow
thing. And we see things from our standpoint in looking at the young who are
beginning their sadhana* from a rather different position, and we wonder,
"Well, why in the world doesn't he see that immediately?" "Why doesn't she
quickly grasp the situation?" Well, it just doesn't happen that way. It
takes patience.
But without patience you won't
accomplish anything in dealing with such situations. Patience - love -
that's the only way I know - and trying to give a good example - that's the
only way I know of helping anybody.
Then, I think you will surely
remember this one: "Never give up the struggle." And this is often coupled
with another saying, "There is no failure in spiritual life."
There is no failure in spiritual
life. Now you find that clearly set forth as well in the Bhagavad Gita.
"Even if you seem to fail or stop, what has been gained will not be lost. It
is emmagasine - put in a kind of deposit from which you can draw the next
time round. Someone was saying to me today, "Isn't it remarkable that when I
first came into this life I had this idea of doing such and such?" Those
things we arrive with are things that we have learned and which we get the
fruit of the next time round.
But that, of course, is a rather
lazy way of looking at things. I prefer the other saying, "Don't give up the
struggle." Never give up the struggle.
And this was very clearly brought to
our attention here once by a dream that one of the members had, who was in a
very discouraged condition and somehow or other, the cry of the heart was
answered by a dream. And in the dream this disciple was on a train. And the
train stopped as they often do. And so the disciple was going to get down,
and the train go on, of course... and then a voice was heard saying, "Don't
get off the train." And this solved the problem.
Well, we all know, we know this, but
just keep putting it in mind is a good thing. As long as you stay on the
train you will keep moving, but if you get down, then it's a different
thing.
Never give up the struggle.
Another saying, which I'd put among
the cryptic sayings - he said to me, "Never sit on the threshold of a door."
You see, we have here a wooden
threshold between the outer and the inner shrine. And because then, as now,
I liked a little support under me, I took, when meditating, to sitting on
that slightly elevated wooden threshold. Which, from my background, was not
an extraordinary thing to do.
And after one or two occasions, I
think it was Swami Krishnananda who was sent to me to tell me that we do not
sit on the threshold, and it was explained that the gods of the door, the
protectors of the porte are there - and they don't like it. (Laughter)
Which, of course (laughing himself) to my western way of thinking, made
perfect sense!
But the truth of the matter is far
deeper and subtler than that. It consists of making a commitment: either be
in or be out. Don't be half-way between. It shows a certain lack of
decision. A certain "foot in two camps" psychology. And whether there are
gods protecting the lintel or not, I don't know. But I can understand
perfectly that if you are going to be in the shrine, be in the shrine. If
you are going to be in the outer shrine, be in the outer shrine. But don't
try to be in the two at the same time.
And so, that, of course, is an easy
thing to apply to our life. Make clear, strong decisions. And, no
shilly-shallying, wishy-washy business. Commitment.
The next teaching that I wish to
bring - recall to your mind: "Never lower the Ideal."
This is something that is very
important for religious organisations to keep in mind. And individuals.
Because that sharp enthusiasm naturally becomes somewhat blunted with the
passage of time, and we may begin to make compromises. But we must keep in
mind that, even if we don't achieve our Ideal at once, we must always
remember that the Ideal is an Ideal and should not be tampered with.
One may admit clearly, and openly,
"No, I have not been able to achieve the Ideal." But one should never
attempt to justify one's performance in terms of lowering the Ideal - for
success reasons, or for reasons of comfort, or for any other sort of reason.
We have seen so many religious
movements - so-called religious movements - in the West which seem to make
everything very easy. And which have achieved, it seems, a great success...
But that is not our way. Even if Vedanta remains small - and it still does
remain small, at least in the West, in the Occident - I think we must be
faithful to our Master and Mother who lived the highest realisation, the
highest virtue as our Ideal, the highest knowledge as our Ideal, the highest
devotion. And not bring that down to make things go a bit better. So far, I
think, we are keeping up the standard.
Then I would remind you of what
Swami always said: "Our objective is transformation of personality.
Sometimes he said, "Our objective is samadhi, and nothing less." That
certainly is keeping the Ideal high.
He said sometimes, "My only hope for
my children is that they should become men and women of God."
Well ... that is really what we are
really struggling for, to become men and women of God.
I like the American enthusiasm for
transformation of personality. There are any number of books and programmes
devoted to that. But transformation of personality in terms of it becoming
transformed into a spiritual personality - not simply a personality that is
very interesting or who attracts other people or produces success - but a
spiritual personality.
I would like, before finishing, to
say something about another teaching that I have learned - this time from
Swami Ritajananda, who has been for me a very interesting experience after
some 15 or 18 years with Swami Prabhavananda - I have now had the blessing
of being with Swami Ritajananda for an equal number of years, more or less,
of course.
And this is something that I find a
very practical teaching, and which complements all these others that I have
already brought to your attention.
Swami uses silence as a response,
and it is a most effective response.
You may remember that there was a
very interesting event that happened here many years ago which caused the
newspaper men and reporters of all the wire-services and the local papers to
invade this place for a few hours, for a day or so, trying to get the
information, because of the somewhat international interest in the subject.
When they all arrived in their most
feroce manner, and began asking questions to write their stories, I simply
didn't know how to handle it. Because we were trying to play the story as
calmly and as simply as possible - subtly as possible. And I frantically
called a friend of mine, a friend of the Centre, who had worked on
newspapers, "What in the world am I going to - how am I to handle this
impact of reporters?" And he said, "There are two things you can do. One is
call a press conference and give out a story to them all at the same time.
And another thing you can do is simply to say, `No comment'." (laughter)
Actually, we finally did the former.
But how often since then I have thought, "What a nice response! `No
comment'."
You see, when somebody comes and
makes a pointed remark, immediately we fly to our defence, for
self-justification, explaining, maybe hurting another person in order to
explain.
There's one particular person at
Gretz who likes to ...and at first I used to react in justification, but,
over the years I simply have learned to smile and say nothing. And after all
the wad had been shot (laughter) the person turns around and marches out of
the room, and it's all over.
But to have responded ... Silence as
a response. I would really like to recommend that as a working basis for
everyday life.
Well, we have just about used our
hour. I thought, in case I ran out of material - I would have to do as Swami
used to tell what he had to do when he ran out of material.
Along about twenty minutes before
the hour was finished he had a tendency to finish the sermon and didn't know
exactly in his mind, of course, what to do for the rest of the time. And he
would always explain like this: "I came to the end of my notes and I didn't
know what to say next to fill the hour and I prayed to Mother, `Oh Mother,
give me material!' and she did!" (laughter)
And, you see, I talked a whole hour.
Well, I guess that is how I have
managed to arrive at nine o'clock.
Shall we just close with a prayer of
Ramakrishna:
"Oh Mother, I don't want name and
fame;
I don't want the eight occult
powers;
Oh Mother,
I have no desire for creature
comforts;
Please, Mother,
grant me the boon that I may have
pure love
for Thy lotus feet."
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