(Apr 21,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Madhu-Vidya by Swami Krishnananda

 Madhu-Vidya

Divine Life Society Publication: - Chapter 2 The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda

Knowledge of the Interconnectedness of things

The Knowledge of the interconnectedness of things, imparted by sage  Dadhyaṅṅ Ātharvaṇa is known as Madhu-Vidya. Usually, consciousness and object are regarded as exclusive of each other. The perceiver is conscious, and the object is what is experienced by consciousness. The two are categorized as two distinct characters in the field of experience. The object cannot be the subject and the subject cannot be the object; consciousness cannot be matter and matter cannot be consciousness. This is our usual notice of things and our practical experience, too. But the Madhu-Vidyā gives us a revolutionary idea in respect of what we usually regard as a field of the duality of subject and object.

Insight into the nature of things – subject and the object

The Madhu-Vidyā is an insight into the nature of things, which reveals that there are no such things as subjects or objects. They are only notional conclusions of individual subjects from their own particular points of view, the one regarding the other as the object, so that there is a vast world of objects to a single individual perceiver, and this is the case with every other perceiver, also. The fact of experience itself is a repudiation of the phenomenal notion that subjects are cut off from objects, as if the one has no connection with the other. If there has been a gulf of difference, unbridgeable, between the experiencing consciousness and the object outside, there would be no such thing as experience at all. 

Adhyatma, Adhibhuta and Adhidaiva

The great revelation of the sage Dadhyaṅṅ Ātharvaṇa is that the Adhyātma and the Adhibhūta are linked together by the Adhidaiva, and a transcendent Divine Presence connects the phenomenal subject and the phenomenal object, through an invisible force, so that we have a universe of interrelated particulars, one entering the other, one merging into the other, one coalescing with the other like the waves in the ocean, and not the universe we see with our eyes, as a house divided against itself.

Madhu-Vidya

This experience is the revelation of the sage Dadhyaṅṅ a knowledge Madhu-Vidyā, which is supposed to have been imparted to Indra and to the Asvins, and to the other sages through them. The significance of the word 'Madhu' in the term, Madhu-Vidyā, is that everything is the 'essence' of everything. 'Madhu' is honey, which symbolizes the quintessential essence of everything. The basic reality of all things is called Madhu in this Vidyā. The essence of everything is, thus, the essence of everything else, also. Whatever is the basic quality, the reality, the fundamental being of anything, is also the fundamental being of everything else. 

Correlativity of everything in the universality of being

There is no superior, qualitative excellence in any object or any subject. It is only a point of view that is called a subject, or an object. So, if the isolated points of view are lifted to a universal point of view, there would be neither subjects nor objects. In a universal expanse of experience, a particular aspect of the total reality is called an individual subject, to which everything else stands in the position of an object. But this is not a correct point of view, because it is an abstraction from the total. 

So, the Madhu-Vidyā reveals to us the truth of the immanence of the Reality that is universal in every particular, so that there can neither be an ultimate cause nor an ultimate effect in a world of mutual dependence and correlativity of things. Madhu-Vidyā is the knowledge of the correlativity of the subject and the object in such a way that they merge one into the other, cancelling the subjectness and the objectness of each, embracing each other in a union of their particularities, and revealing their inner essence called the Madhu. This applies to everything that is outside in the world called Adhibhūta, everything that is inside called Adhyātma, and everything that is transcendent called Adhidaiva. So, from three points of view the sage describes the correlativity of everything in the universality of being. 

Excerpts from:

Madhu-Vidya - Chapter 2 The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda

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(Apr 16,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Majesty of God-Consciousness by Sri Swami Krishnananda

 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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(Apr 1,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Perceptions and the Practice of Yoga by Swami Krishnananda

 Perceptions and the Practice of Yoga

Divine Life Society Publication: The Path to God Realisation - Part 1 (Preparing for the Practice of Yoga)

by Swami Krishnananda

In our perceptions of the world of persons and things, there is a continuous negation taking place of the indivisibility of the Self. It is so because of the fact that perceptions are based on a divided consciousness. There has to be a division between the subjective side and the objective side, between the perceiver and the perceived, in order that there may be perception at all.

This dichotomy between the location of the seer and the seen is precisely the contradiction of the indivisible nature of the Self. Thus, we may say that we are perpetually negating the existence of the Self in everything that we do and in everything that we see, cognize, or perceive through our sense organs. 

The moment the Self is negated, the consequence thereof follows automatically: the character of non-Self inundates us. We become at once other than what we are. We become fear-struck from every side because of the fact that we have lost our Self. The greatest fear is the loss of one’s own Self, and that fear is perpetually on our head like a Damocles Sword – because of the fact that there is a continuous negation of the Self taking place in our perceptions through the sense organs.

It is, therefore, no wonder that we are unhappy throughout our life. We have fears from all sides – tapa, as we call it; adhyatmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika tapa harass us. We have fear from our own psychophysical constitution also: It may fall ill, or it may even die. That is a fear that we have in regard to our own self. We also have fear of the people around us. And above all, there is fear of nature, whose wish and will are not known to us even a little. From every side there is insecurity, as it were, and, therefore, there is not a moment of peace for anyone in the world. 

Perceptions are of two kinds. These categories may be designated as general and abnormal perceptions. If we can see a thing, be conscious of its existence but not be emotionally disturbed about it, we may consider it as general perception. But if any perception disturbs our feelings, this is certainly not a normal perception. It is not normal because we seem to be dualistically involved in the knowledge of the existence of some person or thing in front of us, and not indivisibly involved or, more properly, normally involved. Very rarely do we get disturbed in this manner. 

Finally that none of our perceptions are commensurate with what we may call spiritual perception. The world perception is not spiritual, as it usually goes in our day-to-day life. It is so because the character of Selfhood cannot be recognized in any object, in spite of the fact that every object has a Self of its own. 

In the same way as in every pool of water, multiple though the pools be, the same sun is reflected, the Universal Self is reflected in every individual person as the Self of that particular person or thing. Therefore, everyone has a Self – not a Self, the very Self Itself. Yet, in perceptions, the Self is not recognized. Neither can you see my Self, nor can I see your Self. You see me as a personality seated here, and I also do the same thing in regard to you. If this is the way in which the world goes on, world experience cannot be regarded as spiritual experience. Therefore, we call life in the world as samsara, which means an aberration from the nature of Selfhood. A deviation from truth is called samsara. We move away from the center of our personality, away from the root of the Self, to that which is other than Itself. 

You may ask me, “Is there anything other than the Self?” There is certainly nothing other than the Self. Then what is the meaning of the deviation of consciousness from the Self to the not-Self? The not-Self actually is not a person or a thing. It is the manner in which consciousness adapts itself to persons and things outside. Your judgment of values is what will determine the spirituality or the unspirituality of things. The things in the world are neither spiritual nor unspiritual; they just are, as they ought to be. But the perceptions differ on account of the non-recognition of the Selfhood, or the character of subjectivity in things. 

When I look at you, I see you as an object outside – a person who is not me. The whole point is that: Here is a person who is not me, and how will I deal with that person who is not me? If it is not me, I cannot deal with that person in the way I deal with myself. So immediately there is a conflict arising between the seer and the seen. The not-me is the whole problem. When we say ‘mine’ or ‘not mine’, we make a distinction in our judgments of values. 

I mentioned that in our perceptions there are two modalities, the general and the abnormal, and we are prone to both these types of perception every day. Unless we are free from it, we cannot actually even commence the practice of yoga. 

Excerpts from:

Perceptions and the Practice of Yoga – The Path to God Realisation - Part 1 (Preparing for the Practice of Yoga) by Swami Krishnananda

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The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore

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