What is Our Connection With This World?
Are we connected with it?
We seem to be connected with
the world because we are dealing with certain things in the world daily, which
makes it clear that we are related. But are we really connected with it, or is
it only an imaginary connection? It does not seem to be that we are really
connected, because we came to this world alone and we seem to be living alone,
to some extent; and when we pass away, we go alone, which may make us feel that
there is no real connection with the world. But every day we are dealing with
the world as if there is a connection.
We may say, “I have nothing to
do with anybody here; I am independently sitting, and I will go to my room when
the satsanga is over.” But it is a
hasty statement. We have a connection not merely with the people here, but with
even the walls and the very ground on which we are sitting, the sky, and the
air that we breathe. We have a connection with all these, which we will realize
when we probe into the situation properly.
We have social relations,
personal relations, sensory relations, psychological relations, metaphysical
relations, and finally, there is an indescribable spiritual relation, the
consciousness element in us. We should not try to interpret things in the world
through the sense organs or merely through the logical intellect, which is not
going to be a success.
The scientist’s consciousness
is the observer of all the experiments that he is conducting in his laboratory.
The scientist forgets that he is directly involved in the observations that he
is conducting. The moment the scientist realises that his presence is as
important as the presence of the objects of observation, he will find it
impossible to isolate himself from the study of that in which he is engaged in
the laboratory. Then he will realise that the study of the world is the study
of his own self. Know thyself first, and you will know everything else.
Tena
tyaktena bhuñjitha (Isa 1) is the word of the Isavasya Upanishad. On the
one hand, we can have everything in the world; on the other hand, we can have
nothing in this world. No sadhaka who is
really, sincerely engaged in strenuous practice can forget this aspect.
We can experience the whole
world, enjoy it, by renouncing it. The true possession of an object is in the
act of the renunciation of the form of the object. Objects cannot be possessed
because they are outside us. When the name and form aspect of the object, which
creates the externality of it, is renounced, we become the possessor of the
object entirely. The whole world becomes ours; otherwise, not a particle of
sand or even a broken needle can be called ours. So, on the one hand, nothing
belongs to us; on the other hand, everything belongs to us.
Everything belongs to One
Person, if you call that Being a person. In religious parlance we call it
Mahapurusha, Purusottama. In the Vedic style we call him sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ (Purusha Sukta 1). The Mighty
Being, the Central Consciousness, the God Almighty of the universe is the owner
of all things, including our own selves. We are not the owner of anything, and
no one can own us either.
In every field of life, we
will find a protective element operating. This protective energy has to be
developed from within us by not diminishing the potential of our personality.
What we are craving in our longing for an object of sense is really not there.
What is there is something else, which is hidden behind the perceptive faculty.
The tattva, or the true basic substance
or substantiality of the object, is commensurate with our own being. There is
an atmatva present in the object, the visaya-chaitanya, as they call it,
as there is an atma-chaitanya in our own self. All
the three processes of perception are called chaitanya or
consciousness processes. The ‘within’ is called atma-chaitanya,
the process of perception is called pramana-chaitanya,
and the object itself is called visaya-chaitanya.
Though it is a visaya, there is a chaitanya inside it. But if we
catch the soul, the atma-tattva or
the chaitanya of the object, we are
establishing a rapport with it. It is called samadhi in yoga parlance. Then the
whole world, all objects, dance around us as if a dance of the cosmic nature is
taking place under the central sun of Universal Consciousness.
Otherwise, if we consider
ourselves as puny individuals, pure physical subjects relating to physical
objects, the tragedy of the world cannot end. Desires will rise up like waves
in the ocean and dash down everything that goes near them. Spiritual practice
is a hard job, therefore. It is not easy. One cannot know how a sadhaka moves. The track of sadhana is not visible to the eyes;
it is like the track of birds in the sky or of fish in water.
All the three processes of
perception are involved in the consciousness setup: atma-chaitanya,
pramana-chaitanya, and visaya-chaitanya. If we can behold
a person or a thing, or the world as a whole, as a centre of consciousness, it
becomes ours. Then it is that we experience it and enjoy it. Otherwise, it is
something to be renounced completely. Tyaga,
renunciation, precedes the experience and enjoyment of an object.
Therefore, even to become a
great master of yoga, total renunciation is necessary in order that we may be
capable of total possession and total enjoyment. That is why a jivanmukta-purusha is called a mahatyagi, mahakarta, and mahabhokta: nobody can renounce as
he renounces, nobody can work as he works, and nobody can enjoy as he enjoys.
These are the secrets of self-perfection and self-restraint.
Continue to read:
Living a
Spiritual Life by Swami Krishnananda
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