(Feb 22,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Yoga of The Infinite by Swami Krishnananda

The Yoga of The Infinite

Divine Life Society Publication: The Secret of The Katha Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda

“By God’s grace alone is the tendency towards the Absolute explicable.”

The grand destination, this wondrous structure of the Universe, the goal of life is not easy of an approach. Do not be under the notion that you can get this blissful experience in a trice. Awake! Arise! Stop not till the goal is reached! Seek refuge with men of wisdom. Know it then, by surrender to them.

Subtle is this path, difficult is this way. It is invisible, and hence hard in every sense of the term. You cannot see the track of birds in the sky nor can you see the track of fish in water. So is the path of knowledge. It cannot be seen, though it is there. Inasmuch as there is no reaching or attaining to it in the physical sense, there is also no movement towards it; therefore there is no path leading to it. Thus, the whole of the difficulty is placed before us. When there is no way to it, how will we attain it?

By intellect or mere intelligence this goal cannot be reached. By mere human effort it is not to be attained. Sometimes it looks that the whole thing is absolutely impossible. “How does this knowledge arise in the Jiva?” The great Acharya Shankara merely said, “It is Ishvara’s Sankalpa—grace of God.”

Any disturbance of any kind in any part of the personality of an individual will be a disqualification for this path. Any type of agitation is to be avoided. We have agitations of various kinds in our personality. There is bodily disturbance, pranic disturbance, sensory, mental and intellectual disturbance. All these urges have to be subdued. This is described in a single word, 'self-control'.

The disturbances within our personalities are mostly due to our disagreement with the circumstances outside. This resentment is sometimes expressed in speech and action, but oftentimes it is hidden in the mind itself. We are always in a state of resentment. We put on what Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to call a castor oil face, always. We are not pleased.

The assumptions of our personality may be regarded as the main obstacle to yoga. Our whole life is one of pre-conceived ideas. We are not and we cannot be free from these weaknesses because this defect is ingrained in the very root of our personality. We are born with it. Misconception, wrong understanding, not knowing the truth of things before us is designated as ajnana, which is supposed to breed aviveka or the mistaking of one thing for another thing. Aviveka gives rise to ahamkara or egoism, the sense of importance of one’s own self. Due to ahamkara there is the rise of raga and dvesha, or love and hatred. This pair, love and hate, like and dislike, breeds action, karma, of a selfish character, to gain what is wanted and to avoid what is not wanted. This karma, this selfish action, gives rise to future births and deaths in a series of transmigratory lives. This is the sorrow of life. This is called the chain or the linkage of the bondage of the individual.

The subdual of these impulses from within, leading us the wrong way, is called self-control. Our soul within may be compared to the Lord seated in a chariot. This body of ours, this individuality, this personality, may be regarded as a chariot in which is seated the soul- consciousness. The chariot is driven by a charioteer, a driver. The intellect in us is the charioteer. The reins are the operations of the mind. The horses which pull or drag this chariot are the senses—the eyes, ears, etc. The roads along which this chariot is driven by the charioteer with the help of the horses are the objects of the senses. All this is made possible by a joint activity of the Atman, the senses and the mind. This is a very concise and beautiful description, symbolic, dramatic, full of meaning and profundity given in the Katha Upanishad. This chariot is to be driven right to the Abode of Vishnu—tad vishnoh paramam padam.

So, the charioteer, the intellect, the understanding, the rationality in us is the primeval faculty which determines the extent of our progress in this effort, called the practice of yoga. What is required of a seeker is the strength of integrity and character. Strength of the body is the capacity to endure hardship—that is called strength. To what extent can you bear the pairs of opposites? From that you can know the strength of your personality. Now, the personality is not merely the body, but the entire vesture of the personality, the pancha-koshas—annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya, and anandamaya. The chariot should be systematically built, harmoniously constructed, strong in its make and fit to bear the wear and tear of the motion towards the ultimate goal of life. For this purpose, we have to observe what we call the golden mean of conduct, which is beautifully described in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Moderation in our conduct, balance in our behavior, harmony in our activity, is a pre-condition to yoga.

The objects of sense appear as impediments on account of our wrong approach to them. They become friends when our understanding of them is perfect. Even snakes are charmed and controlled by snake-charmers. Even lions are tamed. What to say of other objects in the world!

The Atman is your friend. The Atman also is your enemy. How could Atman be an enemy? All law is a terror when we do not want to obey it. But law is a protector when we participate in its requirements. The world is the law of God. God speaks to us through the various things of the world. When we gaze, we gaze at the face of God. There are no objects of sense. They do not exist. The objects are nothing but Spirit, projected in space and time. God sensualized is the world. The Absolute specialized and temporalized is this creation. There is no separate world. There is no separate creation. There are no separate objects of sense. The world should neither tempt us nor reject us.

Many of us, seekers, aspirants, have not the goal of our life clearly pictured before our minds. We do not know whether we have to realize God first, or serve the world first. Many seekers think that service of humanity is to come first, and realization of God afterwards. Sometimes we think that mankind itself is God, and service of man is service of God, and so we begin to identify the goal of our life with the activities of our daily life. We appear to be pursuing the goal while we are actually pursuing what is pleasant to the deeper needs of this bodily and ego-ridden personality. It is impossible to truly aspire for God from the entirety of our being. But to understand what God is and what love of God is, God’s grace alone is necessary. The Guru has to bless you. It requires much effort.

The concept of God, the notion of the goal of life before us, is the ultimate determining factor in the success of our practice of yoga, and the Kathopanishad, in this passage on self-control—atmanam rathinam viddhi, etc.—makes it clear that this chariot of the body can go hither and thither if the charioteer lets loose the reins and allows the horses to move according to their whims and fancies. Our intellect can be blurred and clouded by the force exerted upon it by the senses. The senses are very powerful and their power is such that their activities can produce an impact on the mind and the intellect to such an extent that the mind can think and the intellect can understand things only in terms of the senses. The Upanishad warns us against this fall. The Atman, the mind and the senses should be in unison— atmendriyamanoyukta. They should not work in their own way, independently. That is, the activity of the senses, the thoughts of the mind and the needs of the Spirit should be in conformity with one another. They should not be at variance with each other.

The Atman wants nothing. It has known everything. Therefore to desire anything through our actions will be contrary to the requirements of the Atman. Though the actions are directed outwardly, their aim is the inward realization of the Atman. The movement is outward through action, but the goal is inward which is the Self. The Atman has, really, no within and without. When you move to the Infinite outwardly, you reach also the Infinite which is inward. This yoga of the Katha Upanishad is not jnana yoga, bhakti yoga or karma yoga. It is the yoga of the Infinite.

Excerpts from:

The Yoga of The Infinite - The Secret of The Katha Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
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:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org

(Feb 20,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – God’s Grace, Karma, Self-Effort by Sri Swami Sivananda

God’s Grace, Karma, Self-Effort

Divine Life Society Publication: May I Answer That by Sri Swami Sivananda

The Lord’s grace will do everything for me. Why should I do any Sadhana?

God helps those who help themselves. God’s grace will descend only on those persons who exert. The Lord’s grace will descend in proportion to the degree of surrender. The more the surrender, the more the grace. You cannot expect the Lord to do self-surrender for you. Be up and doing. Strive. Plod. Persevere. The Lord will shower His grace upon you.

How to make the mind subtle and pure?

Do Japa. Do selfless service. Pray to God from the bottom of your heart (Antarika). Have Satsang. Meditate. Read the Gita and the Upanishads. Live alone. Live in seclusion for six months. Take Sattvic food. Give up meat, fish, eggs, liquors, chillies, oil, black sugar, onions and garlic.

Why does not the benevolent, kind and all-merciful God help the righteous man and give him happiness? Why does He leave him to the mercies of his Purva Karma?

Karma is likened to the wheel. It has to work out; because the force that set it in motion has to be spent. It is a cycle of action and reaction. Just as the arrow once discharged from the bow cannot be withdrawn, even if the hunter feels that he has aimed at a wrong target, Prarabdha Karma, the fruit of those Karmas performed in previous births that have come up for experience in this present birth, cannot be annulled.

How then does God help His devotee? The all-merciful God does help His devotee by strengthening his will-power, his power of endurance, to bear the Karma-Phala with a cheerful countenance. The devotee is certainly not left to the mercy of his Purva Karma; he is beautifully clothed in the protective shield of His grace. Just as in the worst winter and violent storm, you remain unaffected in your own house and in your warm clothing, the devotee (though to the onlookers he is poor, sick or suffering) does not feel that he is suffering at all and is ever happy and blissful in His remembrance.

A man doing a wrong thing argues that he is doing it because of his Karma; and he does not even try not to do it, because it gives him immediate happiness. How to impress upon him not to do it?

Karma does not compel a man to do wrong actions. Samskara does, to a certain extent. But God has bestowed free will on man, with which to make or mar his career. Man has no Bhoga-Svatantrata or the freedom to enjoy or suffer, which factor is governed by Karma. But, he has got Karma-Svatantrata or freedom to do good or evil. He can substitute good Samskaras in place of the old vicious Samskaras by Vichara-sakti, will-power and continued practice of good actions.

That, evil seems to give immediate happiness is the greatest temptation and the greatest obstacle to the cultivation of virtues; and it can be removed only by discrimination and experience. Contemplation over the ultimate and permanent damage done to the very soul of man by the evil actions, and the harm he is causing to the entire society itself by his evil, ought to compel a man to desist from evil action— however pleasant it might appear superficially. Constant association with the wise and spiritually evolved persons alone can remove these wrong notions from the mind of the wicked one.

When the grace of Guru and God is there, why is the mind still not controlled?

There must be Purushartha also. Only when you do Purushartha, the grace will come. A professor will not answer the questions for you and make you pass. The Gita says, "Uddharet Atmanatmanam". One should raise oneself. Grace only helps one to raise oneself. Everybody should work out his own salvation. You may ask, "What is grace then?". If good books are available for Svadhyaya (study), it is grace. If one enjoys good health for doing Sadhana, that is grace. If God so wishes, He can give Mukti to the whole world in an instant; but He does not do so. Grace descends only when there is Purushartha.

There is such an expression as "the flight of the alone to the Alone".

How will you get God’s grace? When you discipline yourself. How will you know how to discipline? By observing others that had walked the path successfully to the goal of perfection. These men who had walked to the goal are known as Gurus. So you need their help, their personal example, their encouragement and their grace. Thus, we have come round to the answer that a Guru is necessary as well as his grace. Everything is necessary— Atma Kripa, Guru Kripa and Isvara Kripa.

How to free ourselves from Karma, Swamiji?

Feel, as you do your daily duties, that you are only a witness of all that goes on around you, of even your own actions. This is called Sakshi Bhav. You should inwardly realize that you are different from the active principle in you. This is the method of Vedanta.

There is the other— easier, but equally potent method of Nimitta Bhav. Feel that the Lord alone is the real doer of all actions and that you are an instrument in His hands. Your actions will be transformed into worship of the Lord, and you will not be bound to them. Work without expectation of any reward and without egoism. Root out the idea of agency; feel, "I am not the doer". You will be freed from the shackles of Karma. You will not accumulate new Karma. Allow your Prarabdha Karma to work out; and you will attain liberation.

We see a very good man suffering too much. Why? The answer may be: "Because of his previous Karma in his previous Janma". This we can trace back to the day of creation.

The law of Karma is inexorable. Every one reaps the fruits of his previous births. A good man only will suffer a lot, because he is hurrying up in the spiritual march. Many of his evil Karmas have to be worked out and purged out quickly to hasten his salvation in this very birth. But, God gives him extraordinary power of endurance through His grace. An aspirant or a good man gets many difficulties and sufferings. But he rejoices even in sufferings and destitution on account of the descent of the Lord’s grace. He voluntarily welcomes these sufferings. The only best thing in this world is pain or suffering, because it is the eye-opener towards God.

This creation is the result of Isvara’s Eshana-Matra. Nothing less than or beyond that Eshana can happen. Isvara is not ordaining things all the time; else He would be too busy. This means determinism which leaves very little scope for individual effort.

The notion that Isvara ordains things only sometimes and not always and that He would be too busy if He ordains things all the time is a puerile one. Isvara can look to everything at one stroke of His Being. There is no such thing as His ‘being too busy’, for He is not like man, using his senses for the purpose of acting. Isvara does not act with a changing mind as man does, for Isvara’s action is inseparable from an undivided, ever-vigilant, all-powerful, all-pervading Consciousness which neither sleeps nor takes rest. Isvara is essentially this sovereign Consciousness itself. The whole universe is determined by Isvara’s creative Will. But this is no determinism in the sense of a denial of free will to man. Man has a comparatively clear consciousness of himself and of others related to him outside, and he is possessed of the power of discrimination and willing. Isvara is the basis of cosmic activity as well as individual action, and yet, He is not involved in the actions of the individual. To Isvara, everything is determined. The past, the present and the future are all Isvara’s Being alone. But from the individual’s own limited standpoint, there is, in spite of the fact of a changeless universal law, a sort of apparent freedom of action imposed upon himself by his own individuality. Though the individual’s freedom of thought and action is not the final truth about it, it assumes a relative importance and begins to affect the individual with its reactions, as a result of the individual’s notion of the reality of a limited personality and its thoughts and actions. On account of this self-created bondage the Jiva suffers and this suffering comes to an end the moment the Jiva realizes its identity with Isvara in consciousness, in activity and in its very existence itself.

If we are tools in the hands of God, are not men free?

Man becomes free only when his individual will becomes merged in the Divine Will. By becoming a tool (Nimitta) in the hands of God, the Bhakta destroys the egoism or the little false ‘I’, but gains all the Divine Aisvarya or the Siddhis of the Lord. He becomes perfectly free. He has become one with God now.

Excerpts from:

God’s Grace, Karma, Self-Effort - May I Answer That by Sri Swami Sivananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
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:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org

(Feb 16,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Living with Spiritual Paradoxes by Swami Atmaswarupananda

Living with Spiritual Paradoxes

Divine Life Society Publication: Living with Spiritual Paradoxes by Swami Atmaswarupananda

 

 

The spiritual life is full of paradoxes. One of the most puzzling of them is the scriptural declaration that if we want God-realization we must make great effort, supreme effort. At the same time, they adamantly declare that we are already what we are seeking. Our common sense objects. If we are already what we are seeking, why do we have to make extreme effort? And indeed, there are some teachers who ridicule normal spiritual practices and say, "Just realize that you are already free."

 

But that is not what, for example, the Yoga Vasishtha tells us to do. The whole first section of the Yoga Vasishtha is dedicated to self-effort. That’s not what Gurudev said. He constantly urged us to make effort. And in Pujya Swami Chidanandaji’s book, Ponder These Truths, 74 of the 75 talks urge us to make effort of one sort or another.

 

One morning here Swamiji suggested an analogy for this paradox. He said, "It is as if a poor man is living over a treasure. One day a sage tells him that ten feet under the small plot of land where he is sitting, a treasure is buried. That means that the poor man is actually very wealthy. But until he digs down those ten feet, he is as poor a man as he ever was. Even if he digs 9 feet 11 inches he is still poor. It is only when he has dug the full ten feet and puts his hands on the treasure that he is wealthy beyond his fondest dreams.

 

Other analogies speak about cleaning a window so that the light that is always there can shine through, tilling the soil so that the grain can grow. Swamiji also mentioned that Gurudev had a secret. Gurudev made extreme effort, yet at the same time he always knew that everything was happening by God’s will. "It was a secret," Swamiji said, "that Gurudev kept to himself, because we being half-baked people, if Gurudev were to tell us that everything is happening by God’s will, we would stop making effort."

 

Are we then just supposed to make effort without recognizing that we’re already what we are seeking? That doesn’t seem to be the answer. Part of our sadhana should be a constant remembrance of the fact that we are already what we are seeking.

 

But how do we do this sadhana? We do it with everything that we have within us. We use our intellect to remember that the scriptures say that God alone is. We use our heart in devotion to God, recognizing that He is everything to us. But above all, we must put it into practice. If God is all in all, if everything is happening by His will, then why is there this inner tension within me? Do I require an inner tension in order to do my spiritual practices? Why can there not be an inner relaxation—knowing that everything is in God’s hands—and yet I still do my duty, I still do my spiritual practices with all the earnestness that I can muster?

 

Indeed, if we will inwardly recognize that everything is happening by God’s will, that He is in charge, that we are already what we are seeking, we will also find that we will be able to see very clearly what we should be doing in our outer life, what is favorable to our spiritual life and what is not favorable. The spiritual life is full of paradoxes, and the real challenge is to be able to rise above those paradoxes and incorporate them into the fabric of our sadhana.

 

Excerpts from:

Living with Spiritual Paradoxes by Swami Atmaswarupananda

 

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
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:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org