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Swami teaches... From Duality Towards Non-duality. Part 2

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Sai Ram

 

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches...

From Duality Towards Non-duality. Part 2

 

 

The body, the mind, the entire cosmos is in the Atma. The Atma cannot be inside anything else. It is the All. It is the everything. The source of lasting peace and happiness is within ourselves. One must constantly develop the consciousness that the Atma is everything - the doer, the deed and the outcome thereof. When the consciousness is broadened this way, in due course it leads to Self-realisation. If the vision is broad, the destination will also be of the same magnitude. Set your sight on the Supreme. The illumination will come in a flash.

 

The "I" principle is present everywhere. It begins with the Divine itself. The first word was

"Aham" ("I"). Even the Pranava ("Om") came after "Aham". Before all creation "Aham" alone

existed. One who realises the oneness of what he/she regards as his "I" with the cosmic "Aham" alone knows own Reality.

The universal "I" appears under different names and forms in different bodies owing to time and circumstance. Even the same person goes through many changes in form and relationships in life. But the "I" remains unchanged.. It is like an actor wearing different disguises, but himself remaining one and the same. The realisation of the unchanging and universal character of the "I" (the Atma) is the essential objective of the spiritual quest.

 

Cynics declare that statements like "Human is the crown of Creation" are only for text-books and

platform. But human life is holy, sublime, sacred, ever-new, ever-fresh. The Upanishads try to arouse and awaken human into the awareness of this Truth. "Awake and adore the Sun and recognise your Realty in the light of his rays," that is the call reverberating from the Upanishads. But, human is deaf to this entreaty.

Three ardent desires are holding human back: he/she is enamoured of wealth, wife/husband and

children. Of course, wherewithal is essential for the process of life and labouring for it cannot be avoided. They must be used for good purposes, promoting virtue and well-being, fostering Dharma and fulfilling one's duties along the Divine path.

(The intellect discriminates; it probes, it analyses. But the mind follows blindly every whim or fancy. The intellect helps one to identify one's duties and responsibilities. Slavishly bound to the vagaries of the mind, human hops from one spot to another, without rest or peace. Person

runs to catch a bus, rushes to the office, to the cinema hall, to the club and has no moment of

calm silence).

Peace has to be attained through spiritual efforts, that is to say, through spiritualising every thought, word and deed. What has to be planned today to set the world aright is not a new spiritual order or institution but men and women with pure hearts.

 

Many undertake meditation as a spiritual exercise and expend many hours on it, But, in fact,

meditation is implicit in almost every act that is done from morning till night. Meditation (in the

sense of concentration) is implied in all the daily chores like eating, going to work, attending to

business, etc. One is meditating while reading or playing or shopping.

 

Without concentration no activity of any kind can be done. When the concentration is on God, it

becomes spiritual meditation. Does such meditation call for a specific time or place? There is no

special technique for meditation.

For instance, if people do not listen with dhyana (one-pointed attention) to Swami's discourse, they will not remember what Swami said. Even listening calls for dhyana. It has no specific form. No dhyana is possible with a wandering mind.

 

(Today, in the name of dhyana, several stunts are being practised. Instead of spending hours in

so-called meditation with a mind restlessly hopping from one thought to another like a monkey,

it would be better to concentrate on the performance of one's household, official and social duties

with earnestness and dedication. Is that not meditation? Of what use is it to sit in "meditation" for

an hour, when you cannot keep your mind still for a minute)?

 

Devote yourselves to your duties. Meditation should permeate every action you do.

Whatever service you are rendering you should not feel that you are serving others, but that you

are serving God Himself. While taking a bath or giving one to the children, consider that you are

doing the purification ritual of washing God Himself. While serving food consider that you are

offering it to God Himself. While giving food to a beggar, consider that God has come in this

form and you are serving Him.

When you are cutting some vegetables for cooking, consider that you are cutting away your desires and ego with the knife of wisdom. While sweeping the floor don't lament, 'O, it keeps

getting dirty again and again. Think rather that you are cleaning your own heart. If you are rolling Chapathis at home, consider what joy it is to roll and knead and expand your heart. In this

way, you can consider every activity you undertake as being done for the sake of God. Then where is the need for separate meditation, separate penance or separate worship?

 

Those who have faith in the Gita should note that it has clearly declared that this world is ephemeral and "a vale of tears", and enduring peace and bliss are not to be found by attachment to it. However, in the arena of Maya humans have to perform the duties during their life time. It is one of the appearance's of Atma.

The Vedas explain how the Karma and Atmic insight are interconnected and finally lead the the eternal Truth "Thou art That." The Vedas explain that thyaga (giving up) is the means to gain eternal bliss. TheVedas assert that not through karma, not through progeny, not through wealth, but by renunciation alone immortality can be gained. The Vedas declare, both inside and outside, in all that is, immanent Narayana (God) exists.

Through Vedic karmas (actions) like yagas, human can achieve Swarga (Heaven), say the Vedas. But the same Vedas declare, "One can be in Heaven only as long as the merit lasts; therefore when that quantity is spent, one has to enter the world again." So, Heaven, too, is a transient luxury.

The other two types too has only limited force. The Vedas can take you only to the proximity

of the Almighty. Karmas can and do cleanse the mind of ego-sense and of sensual desires.

The Vedas which contain the earliest questionings of human, declare that human asked for the

answer to one problem above all: Kim (What)?

What is the secret of all the mystery, all the multiple incidents and impressions? Is there a Person or is it Impersonal? Has it attributes or is it devoid of marks and motives? Has it consciousness or is it merely mechanical and automatic? Human inquiry proceeded along these lines.

 

And, when varied answers came from many directions, another question arose: "Yath" (Which)?

Which among these guesses is the correct one? For, it was difficult, nay, impossible to delineate

the truth in words or even to delimit as an image for one's imagination. The wise seekers arrived

at the conclusion that Brahman, the Universal Absolute, can be described only as "That from

which the Cosmos was born, that by which it is sustained and that into which the Cosmos

dissolves."

Still, the doubt lingered: "Can this conclusion be right? Can it explain all that is puzzling human?"

Intuition gave them the answer, "Thath" (That). "That conclusion is correct," it affirmed. "Thou

art That." There is no Thou separate or different from That. Both are one. That was the Truth which was revealed.

 

The Vedas consist of three sections or kandas (section, chapter, canto): Karma Kanda (action-oriented), Upasana Kanda (worship-oriented) and Jnana Kanda (spiritual knowledge oriented). Of course, the Thath of which the Thwam is a projection is indescribable and unreachable by action, emotion or reason.

 

The Karma Kanda, for example, cleanses the levels of consciousness. Karma or activity cannot confer satiety or ecstasy, thrupti or ananda. Even when some little is gained, it will be shortlived. It cannot last. How can things or events that do not last confer joy that lasts? Therefore, those who resort to karma believing that they can acquire lasting bliss thereby are pursuing an illusion.

 

There are four types of karma: production (uthpaadya), acquisition (aapya), transformation

(vaipareethyam) and refinement (samskaaram).

Production. Land is levelled and ploughed, furrowed and fed, before seeds are sown, then saplings are guarded, and crops are fostered, before the grain is harvested. But, the grain does not give us lasting contentment and joy.

Acquisition. We acquire things which we hope will fulfill our wants, through the use or misuse of our status in society, position or authority, command over riches or other people, and our own physical prowess and intelligent skills. Even such gains and possessions do not confer lasting joy. While acquiring, while guarding what has been acquired and while spending or consuming it, we have to undergo painful effort and be ever vigilant. Acquisition is therefore fraught with difficulties and it has only temporary value.

Transformation. An example is the change caused in milk to produce curds; forging a piece of iron into a knife or axe. Even these articles do not last long. They disintegrate soon.

Refinement. it is removing dirt and dross. When we decide to celebrate a holy day, we repaint doors and windows, clean the floor and polish door knobs etc., and make the house look spick and span. The daily bath and washing clothes are also processes of refining. We have to refine the mind also. But refined things and minds do not last as refined; they have to be subjected to the same processes again and again.

 

The conclusion is that the joy and pleasure earned by activities (karma) are temporary. Nevertheless, one cannot desist from karma, one should not desist from karma. How then is one to act? One should practise detachment and desirelesses towards the results of karma. That is to say, one should treat all karmas as yajna, (sacrifice) performed for the glory of God (and not for selfish ends), for earning lasting merit (and not for temporary benefits). Karma done in that spirit will not cause either greed or grief. It will cause only a sense of fulfilment of one's duty.

Karma can be considered under two heads: worldly and scriptural (loukika and shasthreeya).

The scriptural karmas comprise three types:

1. Shroutha (based on the authority of the Vedhas and in accordance with Vedic injunctions).

2. Smartha (rituals and ceremonies laid down in the disciplinary moral codes or Smrithis).

3. Puranic (fasts, vows, pilgrimage, worship of idols, etc., recommended in the Puranas).

The physical body which performs japam or dhyanam or the various other spiritual practices is

but a water-bubble. All these methods are for temporarily controlling the mind. But there is one practice that will have a permanent effect, and that is self-enquiry what Swami recommends.

 

The enquiry should go on thus, "Here is my body, here is my mind, my heart, my feelings, my intellect, my memory power. I am not any of these. Someone has praised me. Someone has censured me. But to whom does this pertain? Only to this physical body." In this way you have to develop a sense of detachment and a sacrificing nature.

 

How can a physical body abuse another physical body? That is inert, and this is also inert. How can inert things criticize or admonish? How can they even worship anything? They cannot. But then, can Atma criticize another Atma? That is absurd. Life is a Divine Play, a dream. The concreteness of the Universe we percept is but a secondary reality (Maya) and what is "there" is actually a blur of endless vibrations (frequencies) of Atmic Reality what is beyond the human's perception. The visible world is not real by Swami, Vedas and several acceptable theories of modern science too.

Many people aspire for grace, love, devotion and humility. All these are the forms of the Atma

(Divine self). God is not different from faith. Faith and God are principally one and the same. However, many humans live today without faith (the base) and without ideal (the superstructure). Dharma should be the base and Moksha (liberation), the superstructure, but the world has neglected both and it relies on artha (wealth) and kaama (desire) for happiness and liberation. How can mankind progress without the first of the Purusharthas as the faith and the last, as the ideal?

The Divine Grace is certainly not secured by a change of faith. It is the mathi (mind) that has to undergo a change, not one's matham (religion). By merely changing the garments you wear, you cannot acquire divine qualities.Only the person who transforms character can sublimate him/herself.

A firm faith results in your attaining Brahmananda (the Divine bliss). The happiness experienced with the body is human (dehananda). When the mind is transcended, the joy experienced is Chidananda, which is immeasurably greater than the joy of the mind. Happiness is heaven itself. Happiness is obtained by the control of the senses. True heaven is inside you. This again is described as immortality.

 

Therefore, you need not perform any sadhana, and if you are following some such practice, there is no need for you to abandon it. But in any event, surrender your heart to God.

If you keep reminding yourself constantly that you are a part of Divinity, you are bound to become Divine yourself. On the other hand, if you harbour the feeling that you are something apart from the Divine, you shall remain far from Divinity always. Keep doing your function in society, but always remember that you are essentially Divine.

 

People pine for happiness. But, can one gain it by allowing a free rein to the senses? Can one be happy eating four meals a day, or riding prestigious cars or living in many-roomed bungalows? No. Happiness is brought about by giving up, not by hoarding. Eating, drinking, procreation, sleep, etc. are common to people and animals. From living at a human level, one should aspire to reach the Divine level. Experience and control gives power; regulation gives greater strength; discipline reveals Divinity.

Three main principles are expounded in spirituality.

1. Don't put all your faith in your body, for you do not know what will happen at any moment of time.

2. Don't put your faith in the world.

3. Never abandon your faith in God.

Do whatever job, but never forget God. Forgetting God is no different from forgetting yourself. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 15. "The faith and the ideal," Chapter 7, "Prema saadhana," Chapter 23 and "The garden of the heart," Chapter 25; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 20. "Who am I ?" Chapter 6; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 22. "The One and the Many," Chapter 14; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 32, part 2. "Complete surrender confers Bliss," Chapter 16).

Namaste - Reet

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