The Majesty of God-Consciousness
Divine Life
Society Publication: -Chapter 9- The Teachings
of the Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The whole universe is
envisaged in various facets as adhideva, adhibhuta, adhyatma, adhiyajna etc., all which somehow
maintain the position of a transcendent reality. Aksharam
brahma paramam – the super-cosmic aspect of the Creator is subtly
maintained and that there is a graduated relationship of the individual to all
these cosmical.
Inwardization leads to Universalization
The last thought – the total
thought, and not one among the many thoughts, decides the future. This complete
thought would be the factor that determines the future of the soul. Whatever
one aspires for, that one shall attain to. Yadbhavaiti tadbhava. Social
conditions and many other factors prevent inward longings from manifesting
themselves in outward form, and we live a repressed life. But this repression
is something like burying a seed in the ground, which will sprout itself forth
one day when there is rainfall and a conducive atmosphere is manifest.
The point that we may bear in
mind is that we have to be very cautious in thinking, feeling, and willing.
"Whoever contemplates the Supreme Being, God Himself, that soul will enter
God."
Nothing is there outside God,
nothing is superior to God, nothing external. In the earlier stages it appears
that God is far away – infinite is the distance between us and God. But this
doubt is dispelled when the religious consciousness deepens, and it realizes
that the very being of God is the being of infinitude, eternity, and therefore
there is no distance between the soul and God. The language of the Eternal is
the voice of our inner conscience, and our Atman is Brahman.
God, the distant being, is
also the God who is the soul of the very seeking spirit which feels God as a
distant being. Thus the inwardization leads to the universalization of this
concept. He is not a secretly hidden light within an individual body, but a
large presence which occupies all space and all time so that outside it nothing
can be – not the universe, not the individual.
Total Surrender
Timeless is God's existence,
and timeless, therefore, is God's action in His operation. Timeless is He
because He is also spaceless. Hence, the grace of God is a non-spatial and
non-temporal gift. Inasmuch as it is non-temporal, it is instantaneous – just
here and now. So when the soul, the seeker, the yogin,
the aspirant, the devotee timelessly, spacelessly unites itself with this
timeless, spaceless Being, there is a timeless and spaceless consequence that
follows. There is an immediate fulfilment of all that is essential. A single
thought, which is the total surrender of the whole of one's personality to this
God-Being, evokes a response which is eternal and non-spatial, and an abundance.
Everywhere He is present,
sometimes more pronounced in His manifestations, sometimes not so manifest. Deluded
man, totally oblivious to his glorious goal, foolish in his pursuits, regards
himself as all-master in this world. A little bit of long rope is given by God
Himself to every one of us, so we may live in our own fool's paradise for the
time being and we may rule in the hell that we have created here. But when adharma, which is this egotism of
man, goes to heights, to the breaking-point, then God Himself cannot tolerate
it anymore and there is a dissolution of the cosmos.
Total Consciousness
An integral vision is
necessary to behold this integrality of existence. The superficial, phenomenal
eye sees diversity everywhere, but distinction between the seer and the seen is
not the tool that you can employ in the vision of the Absolute. The third eye
is an integral intuition, the total consciousness, the whole of our being
welling up into action – the Atman beholding Brahman.
There cannot be two kingdoms
of God. If we establish our own kingdom here, on earth, vying with the eternal
kingdom of the Absolute, then we may rule our kingdom well in the way we are
having here in it; but this empire of ours cannot reach that divine empire.
God does not require anything
from us. Nothing can be offered to God because everything belongs to Him. What
can we offer to Him? Perhaps the last thing that we have is our own
individuality, our egoism, our personality, our being. God asks that we may be
offered to Him, and not anything that we may have. He does not want a temple to
be built for Him, a house of brick and mortar, calling it a chapel or a church.
He does not want any offering because we are offering to Him what does not
belong to us – this is not a charity. But what we consider as our property is
ourself only. The last thing that we can part with, the dearest and the nearest
of our possessions, that object which we love most, it is our own self – let
this love melt into God-love.
The bhakti, this
devotion spoken of here, is not a little lip sympathy that we show to God. It
is not a bowing of the head, it is not the folding of the hands – it is the
melting of ourselves in the menstruum of God-Being.
Ananyashchintayanto mam ye janah paryupasate;
tesham nityabhiyuktanam yogakshemam vahamyaham.
Recite this sloka every day – contemplate its
meaning. Nobody can harm us. There is nobody who is not under the subjection of
God's rule, and therefore when we are in communion with this Great
Master of the World, the whole army of God will protect us, provided we are
honestly in fraternal relation with Him and we regard Him as All-in-All. God
will offer Himself only when we offer ourselves to Him – not before. Thus it is
that the Self-offering of God is an automatic, instantaneous occurrence as a
response to the whole-souled offering of ourselves to Him. It is not jnana, it is not bhakti, it is not yoga – it is
every blessed thing. To know It, to visualize It and to enter into It, are the
duties of man. Finally. God-realization is the goal of life. Thus, yoga is an
art of attaining to God-consciousness.
Excerpts from:
The Majesty of God-Consciousness - Chapter 9- The Teachings
of the Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The Spiritual (story) message of – The
Great Master of the World
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