Basics of Spirituality
From Divine Life Society Publications of Swami
Krishnananda’s Discourses
Mind
The "mind" is a name
given to the policy of affirming one's finitude. The assertion of individuality
is known as "mind." It is a pressure exerted upon the limitedness of
our personality, and there is no such thing as mind independently existing, as
we may imagine it to be.
It is, to explain it
precisely, the body asserting itself: "I am." This body feels
"it is." That vehement feeling of physical existence is termed the
"mind" for purpose of easy comprehension.
The control of the mind is,
therefore, equal to the finding of the relation between the finite and the
Infinite.
The mind is a great mystery.
It can deceive you every moment and tell you everything is wrong – nothing is
good anywhere, everybody is foolish, the world is a devil's abode and it is better
to be rid of it; yet, till the last moment of your breath, the desire to live
long will not leave you. You may be a patient with incurable disease, utterly
poverty stricken, but you would like to continue the existence in this body as
much as possible. Nobody would like to abolish the personality, destroy one's
individuality, negate one's existence.
Renunciation
The renouncer has to renounce
himself, so that the renunciation may become complete.
But where is the meaning in
renouncing one's own self? If the self is renounced, what remains? This
difficulty will suddenly take possession of our own selves. There is really no
such thing as renunciation of anything, because nothing in the world really
belongs to you. How can you renounce a thing which has not actually become your
property? Are you renouncing somebody else's belongings? The world is not under
your control; therefore, how will you renounce it?
Here, renunciation has to be
understood in the spirit that is within it. Renunciation is not an abandonment
in the literal sense of the word, but a spirit that is maintained within – a
spirit of not belonging to anything, and a spirit of nothing actually belonging
to one's own self.
Religion
Religion is a positive manifestation of the totality of your being in a conscious manner, not unconsciously as in sleep, not partially as it does in any ordinary activity. Therefore, religion is a very rare thing in this world.
Consciousness
Pressure of consciousness
causing the individual self-sense may be broadly understood as having three
levels of empirical expression, viz., the conscious, the subconscious and the
unconscious. Only the conscious level operates when a person is awake, the
sub-conscious operates in dream, and the unconscious in deep sleep.
Rebirth
Rebirth is caused by the
magnetic pull exerted by the desiring centre of consciousness upon the physical
elements and the forces of nature outside. Such a desire being absent in
realised souls, they have no rebirth. They merge into Universal Being. The
legacy which acts as the link between the here and the hereafter is desire,
which causes reincarnation. The legacy so-called is a mysterious admixture of
consciousness and desire, which is the causative factor behind rebirth.
Does the principle of karma apply to subhuman species?
The principle of karma, or the
principle of reaction which conditions the notions of good and bad etc., is not
supposed to apply to the sub-human species since they do not have the
self-consciousness of personal agency in action and are just guided by the
natural forces of evolution. Nemesis cannot be attributed to an individual as
long as it is free from personal agency in action. The sub-human species evolve
in the same way as there is rise of life from matter to the vegetable kingdom,
etc., as mentioned. This is not caused by karma, but by the very pressure of
universal evolution.
Freewill or determinism?
The problem of free will and
determinism can also be explained by a homely example afforded by the science
of psychoanalysis, to give only one instance as to how it can be explained. The
patient is made to think in a particular manner by the determined will of the
psychoanalyst, but patient always feels that he or she is having complete
freedom of choice, notwithstanding the determinism of the will of the physician
that is at the back of it. Perhaps you remember the interesting statement of
Spinoza that a stone which is thrown into the sky by someone may feel that it
is moving up of its own choice, if only it had consciousness of its movement.
We feel that we eat a particular diet out of our free will and nobody compels
us to eat such and such a thing, though it is well known that the choice of
diet is determined by the physiological condition of the person; so where is
freewill here?
Swami Vidyaranya, in his
Panchadasi, says that freewill is the way in which the omnipresent will of the
Absolute (or you may say, Isvara) operates through the individuality of a
created being. Here, again, it is a question of viewpoint or standpoint.
The consciousness of agency in
action is what is known as free will, though this consciousness itself may be
impelled by a law that is operating in the universe. So, where is the
contradiction between determinism and free will? Man will not be held
responsible for his acts if he is conscious from the bottom of his heart that
the universal law is operating through him, but he will certainly be
responsible for what he does if he knows that he exists as an individual and
therefore actions proceed from him and not from the universal reality. No one
can do wrong unless this doing proceeds from individual consciousness which
contradicts the fact of its being determined by another. Thus, there is a
mix-up of arguments here, when doubts are raised as to how man can do wrong if
he is determined. The doubt arises from a fallacious argument.
Continue to read:
Excerpts from Swami Krishnananda’s Teachings
Hinduism and
The Vedanta by Swami Krishnananda
On Mind-Control by Swami
Krishnananda
The
Definition of Religion by Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?
If you would
like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact
the General Secretary at:
No comments:
Post a Comment