Do You Want Time To Think (about) God?
Divine Life
Society Publication: Everything
About Spiritual Life by Swami Krishnananda
The cosmos is one integrated
completeness. We are not merely inside it; we are inseparable from it. The
hands and the feet are not inside the body, and they are not outside the body.
They are the body. In a similar manner, you can imagine that you are not
outside the world, nor also are you inside the world, but you are the world. If
that is the case, what are you looking at with your open eyes? You can imagine
the error of sensory perception. A deep analysis is called for here in the
interest of any spiritual seeker.
You will find that this is a
hard task, because the habit of consciousness to look outward and place itself
in the limited context of an observer of the world is so strong. Indriyani pramathini. The sense organs have tortuous, impetuous,
gale-like force, which are nothing but the avenues of the gushing of
consciousness in an externalised fashion through an imagined space-time
complex.
A spiritual seeker, therefore,
is perpetually vigilant. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the great saint, in one
of his statements, tells how you have to be cautious, and never be
wool-gathering. Suppose it is heavily raining, and it is the middle of the
night. You find a little shelter – a little thatched hut. You sit there just to
have a little respite from the dark and this pouring rain outside. By the
starlight, you see that a snake is crawling out of a hole, and another snake is
by your side; and behind you is a scorpion. Everywhere you find little
creatures coming, dreaded things showing their heads, and you are sitting there
because you can’t go out in the heavy rain. Will you sleep even though you are
tired? The whole night you will be looking all around, from ten directions, to
see what is happening. What happened to your fatigue, and your wish to sleep?
It has gone because of the fear of what is there around you. You can give
several examples of this kind where it is possible for you to get highly
concentrated on a thing, and never forget it.
You may say that the mind is
very mischievous, the senses are strong, desires are powerful, or that you are
unable to concentrate your mind. These arguments arise on account of your
lukewarm affection for the ideal that you are choosing. You may be tired, you
may be thirsty, you might not have eaten for several days, and you would like
to rest, but if you are carrying a large fortune in your pocket, which is your
very life, as it were, it will not permit you to think of anything else except
that. The value that you see in a thing will enable you to concentrate on it.
Perhaps, we cannot see enough
value in living a spiritual life. There are so many mistakes we commit in the
very thought of what spiritual life is. Often, we think it is an other-worldly
life. We think that it is a movement towards a reality that is not in this
world, that it is far away from us, that God is not in this world, and that we
have to die here in order that we may reach the Absolute which is above this
world. The transcendent character of the world, of felicity, God above in
heaven – these ideas arise in us because of the limitations to which the sense
organs are subject by the operation of space, time, and cause. God is not
transcendent. He is neither outside nor inside, nor we can say that He is
everywhere. All these ideas arise on account of definitions that we attribute
to Him in terms of space, time, and causation.
If you know the value of
attaining God, you will think nothing else in your mind. But you do not believe
that there is as much value as the scriptures, saints and sages say because you
think that there is some value in this world also. Who can say that this world
is valueless? This pull from the world, which is apparently full of value,
contaminates your love for God who is apparently transcendent to your sensory
perception. Even the concept of God is vitiated by the involvement of the mind in
space, time, and cause. That is why you find even a few minutes of meditation
is very difficult. Neither can you do japa, nor chant the
name of God, study, svadhyaya, or
concentrate – nothing is possible because this world, which is working havoc in
terms of our vicious activity of the sense organs, prevents you from knowing
the true noumenal indivisibility of Being which is independent of and
completely free from the phenomenal texture of your temporal personality.
Lots of time is to be devoted
for this purpose. Spiritual life is a whole-time occupation. You will live for
it, and die for it. Spiritual life is not one kind of activity among other
activities in which you are getting involved: “I have to go to the factory, I
have to go to the shop, I have to maintain a family, and I have to do
meditation also.” So, you consider meditation on God as one among the many
other activities of life, not knowing that it is not an activity at all. It is
an inwardness of your Being to which you enter, and it comprehends all other
things in your enumeration. The factory-going, working, amassing wealth, and
all other things are included within this.
The indivisible Being, which
is the God whom you are aspiring for in your meditations, is inclusive of all
things. The mind will not accept this truth. It will say, “It is not so. The
world is there. It is beautiful, and it can give a lot of satisfaction.” Who
can say it is not? Do you think that this world is hell? The mind says, “It is
like heaven. I can get whatever I want from this world,” and it gives a little
corner in a limbo of your existence for the seat of God; and finally, you will
find that God is completely excommunicated from this world. The world kicks God
outside. As in Aesop’s fable, the camel kicked the Arab out of the tent. This
is what is happening to poor God. We have given Him a little niche of our life,
grudgingly; we have no time for Him, but we do not understand that all time is
included in Him.
Why do you want time for
thinking God when it is Timeless Existence? Do you want time to think God? It
is Pure Being as such; it is your existence. Do you want time to exist? How
much time do you want to exist? It is a meaningless question. Existence does
not require a time. If that is the case, the thought of God, meditation on God,
or the absorption of your consciousness in God does not require time, because
it is a timeless operation of your consciousness.
Knowing all this, withdraw
your sense objects. Never be a slave to the temptations of the senses, and do
not play second fiddle to the mind, which is just dancing to the tune of the
sense organs. Be under the guidance of a good teacher, a master, a guide,
because however much you may hear, your mind will not retain all these things.
When you go out, 90% of this goes out. Nothing is there; the whole thing is
washed off because the mind is powerful. Repeated study, continuous svadhyaya, satsanga with saints and sages,
Guru Upadesha, an honest search for God and a real wanting it is required.
‘Real wanting’ is to be underlined. If you really want it, it has to come. As
it is well said by a great master, “Ask, and it shall be given.” If you ask for
it, it shall be given. If you don’t ask, it is a mistake. So, be happy. God
bless you.
Continue to read:
Everything
About Spiritual Life by Swami Krishnananda
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