(Apr 5,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Overcome The Great impediments to Spiritual Progress by Swami Krishnananda

 Overcome The Great impediments to Spiritual Progress

Divine Life Society Publication: Discourse 3 - The Secret of the Katha Upanishad by Sri Swami Krishnananda

“Overcome Avidya (ignorance), Kama (desire) and Karma (action) by Yajna ( sacrifice), Dana (charity) and Tapas (discipline)”

The Great impediments to spiritual progress

The great impediments to spiritual progress are known as avidya, kama and karma—ignorance, desire and action. These three aspects of the obstacle are really a single obstacle presenting itself in three different ways. An ignorance of the true and ultimate nature of things is called avidya. We call it ignorance, or nescience, or the absence of knowledge, or darkness, etc. This ignorance, avidya, breeds a desire for the external objects of sense—kama. An ignorance of the character of reality, which is avidya, at once presupposes an affirmation of personality, ahamkara—and a desire to contact other personalities. Avidya causes ahamkara simultaneously. They are almost inseparable, like the heat and the light of fire. The moment there is this self-affirmation born of ignorance, there is a necessary consequence of it following, viz. a longing to make good what has been lost, by way of contact with things. That is called kama. To fulfil kama or desire there is karma or action. So the whole of one’s life is a threefold effort of avidya, kama and karma— ignorance, desire and action. This is the tripura or the threefold fortress of the demoniacal powers, which Lord Siva is supposed to have broken through with a single arrow. These are the three citadels made of gold, silver and iron, as they say in the Puranas. These are the three knots or granthis—Brahma-granthi, Vishnu-granthi and Rudra-granthi —which the hatha-yogins and the kundalini-yogins and the tantrikas speak of—avidya, kama, karma. It is a single power appearing as three independent impediments to the expression of knowledge.

Overcoming the threefold bondage

The three fasts of Nachiketas may be compared to the soul’s endeavor to break through these three fortresses, a withdrawal gradually effected from the outer to the inner, overcoming the force of karma, overcoming the power of kama and finally overcoming avidya. Three forms of tapas or austerity have to be undergone with three aids and with the help of three sadhanas or spiritual practices. You overcome birth and death with these three processes. You gain mastery over those conditions which limit you to the body in all its three layers of expression and to the three planes—the physical, the astral and the celestial. These are the essential bondage of the soul inwardly as well as outwardly limiting its expression and confining it to samsara or earthly existence and suffering. The overcoming of this threefold bondage is the implication of the term ‘trinachiketa’ mentioned in the Upanishad.

The instruments that have to be made use of in this effort are the mind, the intellect and the spirit (manas-buddhi-atma), all combined in a single-pointed effort—tribhiretya sandhim. You have also to perform three actions, to which a reference has been made in the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavadgita: trikarma—yajna, dana, tapas. Yajna is the sacrifice which one performs for attaining union with Reality. It includes all forms of self-abnegation and dedication. The Lord himself is compared to yajna—Yajno vai vishnuh, and in the masterly Purusha-Sukta of the Vedas the whole creation is compared to a yajna of the Supreme Being. Yajna is, therefore, the supreme effort of the soul to unite itself with God. Dana is the charitable disposition of the soul towards others. Charity does not mean only parting with a few rupees or dollars. Charity is an attitude of the mind. It may be expressed in the form of physical action, or it may not be so expressed. It includes charitable feelings, a charitable attitude, conduct and behavior towards others. The capacity to appreciate the situation of others is charity. When you are in a position to enter into the feelings and the actual conditions and circumstances of other souls and other persons and feel as they feel and think as they think and act as they act, not with a sweating effort but with a spontaneous expression of your nature, that would be the essence of a charitable nature—dana. Tapas is personal discipline, bodily, verbal as well as mental. One who puts forth this threefold spiritual endeavor overcomes birth and death—Tarati janma-mrityu.

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Overcome The Great impediments to Spiritual Progress -  The Secret of the Katha Upanishad by Sri Swami Krishnananda

 

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(Mar 30,2014) Spiritual (Story) Message for the Day – Overcome the sources of trouble by Swami Krishnananda

 Overcome the sources of trouble in this world

Divine Life Society Publication: The Positivity and Negativity of Experience by Swami Krishnananda

In the Sixteenth Chapter, we have the definition of the twofold forces acting in different ways, centripetal and centrifugal, the daiva and the asura sampat. The asura sampat, which is the devilish form it takes when it becomes uncontrollable, is psychologically engendered by certain operations in us, to which a reference is being made towards the end of the chapter. 

Trividhaṁ narakasyedaṁ dvāraṁ nāśanam ātmanaḥ, kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet (Gita 16.21): The road to hell is threefold. The undivine nature can take you to the lowest perdition; and its seed is sown in our own hearts. Life and death are both operating in our own selves in a mysterious way, right from the time of our birth from the womb of the mother.

Desire, anger and greed are the sources of trouble in this world: kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas. Intense longing for a thing is kama: "It is impossible to exist without it. I want it, and I want it in any way." This kind of unquenchable thirst or longing for things is kama. And if any obstruction comes in the way of the fulfilment of your desire, you are angry at the source of that obstruction. You want to see the end of it. This is krodha. Therefore, kama and krodha are dual factors operating as a single force of longing. One is longing per se, as it is in itself; the other is the longing itself acting in a different way against that which is derogatory to the fulfilment of the longing.

It appears that gods, demons and men went to Prajapati, the Creator. "Give us some instruction." Prajapati, the great Creator, answered: "Da," to the gods, demons and also to human being. What is it that they understood?

Three people understood the one sound da in three different ways. The gods understood “da” to mean damyata, "be self-controlled", because the celestials in heaven are supposed to be engrossed in the pleasures of life. The senses become highly rarefied in heaven. We cannot properly enjoy things in this world because physicality hampers cognition of things to a large extent. The weight of this body and the weight of the object obstruct a real satisfaction taking place in us, whereas in heaven there is no physicality; therefore, there is lightness, buoyancy of spirit, and enjoyment is more intense. Hence, inclination to rejoicing is more in heaven than even on this Earth. So the gods understood, "Yes, he is telling us not to be too engrossed in the joys of the senses – damyata. We understood. You are telling us that we must be self-controlled. We should not enjoy through the senses." 

"Do you understand?" Prajapati asked the demons. "Yes. We understand." Demons are always angry. They are ferocious. They kill. They destroy. Their only work is destruction. They do not want anybody else to exist. "What do you understand?" "Dayadhvam: be compassionate. This is what you are telling us. We are very cruel. We understand that you are telling us we must be compassionate." Da means damyata in the case of gods: be self-controlled; but da means dayadhvam, "Be compassionate," in the case of the demons.

What about human beings? "What did you understand?" "We understood 'Datta: give in charity'." Human beings are greedy, they want to possess, and go on accumulating land, property, gold and silver. So human beings understood da to mean give in charity: "Don't be greedy. Give! Give in charity." Be self-controlled, be compassionate, be charitable in nature. These three instructions Prajapati gave to the threefold manifestations of these three gunas: passion, anger and greed. These are the road to hell.

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Overcome the sources of trouble in this world   - The Positivity and Negativity of Experience by Swami Krishnananda

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(Feb 12,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Free Will versus Fatalism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Free Will Versus Fatalism

Divine Life Society Publication: Practice of Karma Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda

The controversy between free will and fatalism is still going on in the West and no one has come to any definite conclusion. It is a great pity that the doctrine of Karma is mistaken for fatalism. Fatalism is the doctrine that all events are subject to fate and happen by unavoidable necessity.

Fate is otherwise known as luck or fortune. That indefinable mysterious something which brings trials, successes and failures to man, which shapes and moulds him by teaching lessons of various sort, which takes care of him like a mother, which brings various sort of experiences, which brings cloudy days and days of bright sunshine, which raises a beggar to the level of a landlord and hurls down a mighty potentate to the level of a street-beggar, which gives different kinds of fruits and experiences to two people of equal talents and capacities, which made Napolean at one time a terror in the eyes of the people and at another time a prisoner, and which makes a certain portion of the life of a man quite stormy and another portion quite smooth, is called fate. Fate educates and instructs man. However whimsical the fate may appear to operate, it works in harmony with the law of causation.

Fate is one’s own creation. Man acts and thinks and develops his own character. He creates a web like the spider or a silk-worm and entangles himself in its meshes on account of the three knots, viz., Avidya, Kama and Karma. He himself has enthroned fate to the level of a king and obeys its order owing to his ignorance and its effects.

The doctrine of Karma is diametrically opposed to the doctrine of fatalism. Fatalism causes inertia, lethargy, weakness of will and bondage. Fatalism annihilates faith. It induces terrible fear in the people. It destroys ethics. It checks growth and evolution, whereas the doctrine of Karma is an incentive to action to better one’s condition. It is a source of solace. It gives man an assurance of a broader and happier life. It presupposes freedom of the will. Freedom is the essence of Karma. It gives opportunities for growth and evolution. The doctrine of Karma affords a most rational and scientific explanation of what is called fate. It gives a positive definite word of assurance that, although the present of which he himself is the creator or the author, is unalterable and irrevocable, he may better his future by changing his thoughts, habits, tendencies and mode of action. Herein lies great comfort, strength, encouragement and consolation to the desperate man. This gives a strong impetus for the man to struggle and exert for improving himself. Even a forlorn and helpless man is made cheerful when he understands this doctrine of Karma.

The doctrine of Karma teaches: “Do not blame anybody when you suffer. Do not accuse God. Blame yourself first. You will have to reap what you have sown in your previous birth. Your present sufferings are due to your own bad Karma in your past life. You are yourself the author of the present state. The present is unchangeable. Do not weep. Instead of weeping over the failure of crops during last year, go on ploughing this year. You will get abundant rain this year and rich harvest. Do virtuous actions now. Think rightly. Act rightly. You will have a brilliant and a glorious future.” How beautiful and soul-stirring is this magnanimous doctrine of Karma! The doctrine of Karma develops faith and supports ethics. It says: “If you hurt another man, you hurt yourself.”

Every act produces in the performer a double effect, one in the inner nature in the form of a tendency, good or bad, and the other in the form of fruit, reward or punishment. The past Karma influences the present life in two ways, first in the form of character or tendency internally and as fate externally. If you do an action, it creates a Samskara or subtle impression in the subconscious mind or Chitta. The Samskara causes a tendency. Tendency develops into a habit by repetition of the actions. The habit manifests as character. Character develops into destiny. This is the order: Samskara, tendency, habit, character, and destiny.

The faculty of choosing is termed will. This will is free by its own nature. Man has a free will by his birthright. It asserts itself at every moment of our lives. Bear in mind that every small act that you perform is the resultant of triple conjoint forces, viz., freewill, character and fate. The sphere of activity varies according to the nature of your Karma and the character formed by it. If you have done virtuous actions in your previous birth and if you have developed an exemplary character, your will would have a wider field of activity and vice versa.

Determinism is the doctrine that all things, including the will, are determined (limited) by causes. This is the converse of free will. It is otherwise known as necessitarianism. Man has power to choose between the alternatives which fate brings before him. In choosing between them he may either follow his tendencies produced by his past actions or struggle against them. The will of a man is ever free. The arguments which are advanced by determinists in saying that human will is determined are not sound and tenable; they fall to the ground.

Dear friends! Man is the master of his destiny. Wake up now from the deep slumber of ignorance. Never become a fatalist. Think rightly. Act rightly. Lead a virtuous life. Never hurt the feelings of others. Mould your character. Purify your mind. Concentrate. Thou art Nitya Mukta Purusha. Tat Tvam Asi—Thou art That.

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Free Will versus Fatalism - Practice of Karma Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda

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(July 11,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Self-Withdrawal and Self-Discovery

Self-Withdrawal and Self-Discovery

Divine Life Society Publication: The Yoga of Meditation by Swami Krishnananda

The world we live in, according to Buddhist psychology, is Kama-Loka or the world of desire, in which the Kama-chitta or the desireful mind operates, like a hungry tiger prowling in a dense forest. Kama-Loka is the private picture which each individual mind projects upon the screen of the scientific world or the world of true forms, known as Rupa-Loka. There is a meaning that is read by an individual into everything that is of the world of forms. This meaning is Kama or desire. An object is beautiful or ugly, good or bad, 'mine' or 'not-mine'. Such evaluations and understandings of the mind in regard to the object-forms are its own desires or Kama. This would prove that we live in the world of desire rather than the world of true forms, for we cannot imagine an object to be entirely free from these personal evaluations mentioned.

The scientific world, on the other hand, is neither 'mine' nor 'not mine', neither beautiful nor ugly, neither good nor bad, for in this realm of true forms or Rupa-Loka objects exist by themselves, independent of evaluations by others. The mind which perceives these true forms behind the projected pictures of desire is Rupa-Chitta. The first step in meditation would be to withdraw consciousness as Kama-Chitta from the Kama-Loka and raise it to Rupa-Chitta of Rupa-Loka. This is tantamount to viewing things in their own nature, objectively, without foisting upon them one's own subjective wishes. This is one of the most difficult things to perform in meditation. In short, to function in the Rupa-Loka would be to think as an object would think of itself, irrespective of any idea of it by a subject. This is something like raising oneself to the Kantian world of quantity, quality, relation and modality, independent of personal passions and prejudices.

The transcendental mind operates almost abolishing the distinction between mind and its objects, where one borders upon the cosmic mind which has no objects outside itself.  Patanjali  details them as Savitarka, Nirvitarka, Savichara and Nirvichara –The stages of Samadhi.

The methods prescribed to rise from Kama-Loka to Rupa-Loka are: (a) inhibition of bodily and mental functions by Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara; (b) concentration on one selected object without thinking of another, by Dharana; (c) replacement of the object by a mental image of it; (d) divesting the image of all concrete sensations and conceiving the image in an abstract mental cognition with all the individualised characters of the image. It is here that Rupa-Jnana or the lowest form of super-normal perception dawns.

There are five stages of Rupa-Dhyana or meditation on the true forms of things, viz., (a) removal of stupor by reasoning or Vitarka; (b) removal of doubt by discrimination or Vichara; (c) removal of aversion by compassion or Karuna; (d) removal of distraction or worry by contentment or Mudita; (e) removal of sensuous desire by one-pointedness or Ekagrata. The emphasis in the method of Patanjali is on concentrating gradually on more and more subtle objects, while in the Buddhistic method stress is laid on greater and greater elimination of objective consciousness.

There are four stages of Arupa-Dhyana or meditation on the subtle essences of things (we may say Tanmatras): (a) In the first stage the mind transcends the consciousness of matter and form, of distinctions and limitations, and gets concentrated on the idea of infinite space. This infinite perception brings joy to the mind, for here space-perception is freed from the usual concrete empirical perception of it and raised to a non-empirical abstract concept. (b) In the second stage, the mind transcends the concept of infinite space and is concentrated on the concept of infinite awareness; it is merely aware of a concept of consciousness as infinite. (c) In the third stage the conditions of the 2nd stage are overcome and the mind gets concentrated on the infinite void and is aware of the void alone. (d) In the fourth stage, the lower stages are transcended and the mind rises to a state where there is no knowing, or non-knowing, but an inexplicable awareness, which is pure and simple.

Beyond this is the realm of Lokottara-Chitta, which no one can describe, for here the mind assumes the state of Cosmic Being and is one with the forms of all cosmic processes.

According to Patanjali, the lowest stage of mental concentration is known as Savitarka, wherein the mind in concentration becomes one with the gross object (Sthula Artha) associated with its name (Sabda) and concept (Jnana). The second stage is of Nirvitarka, in which the mind gets united with the gross object as free from name and concept. It is not the object that becomes known by the consciousness here, but the consciousness freed from the sense of 'I' and 'mine' gets identified with the object. There is no 'I-ness' or 'this-ness' in regard to the subject or object, but the two become one and there is only the consciousness of the object in a state of union. The third stage is of Savichara, wherein the mind in concentration becomes one with the subtle object, like atoms and forces or Tanmatras etc., coupled with the ideas of space, time and causality and connected with the several attributes and relations. The fourth stage is of Nirvichara, wherein the mind in concentration becomes one with the subtle object, like the forces behind things, Tanmatras in their essences, free from the notions of space, time and causality and free from all attributes and conditioning relations. The fifth stage is of Sananda, where the mind in deep determinate concentration becomes one with the joy of Sattva, by the subjugation of Rajas and Tamas, though the latter are not completely destroyed here. The sixth stage is of Sasmita, wherein the mind in deep determinate concentration becomes one with the pure universal intellect or Mahat which is almost indistinguishable from the Universal Self. Here Rajas and Tamas are completely overcome and Sattva shines in its full splendour and glory. With a distinction of determinate and indeterminate meditation in the Sananda and Sasmita stages, the total steps to be covered become eight in number.

All these are the stages of what Patanjali calls Samprajnata or the objectively conscious condition in various stages of subtlety of being, tending to universality. Beyond all these is Asamprajnata or the non-objective absolute state of being which is attained by supreme dispassion, resulting in the stoppage of all mental functions, leaving, however, the impressions of their cessation.

Transcendent to everything, there is the Nirbija-Satta or the seedless Absolute Existence, without even these impressions mentioned above. Here, the Goal of life is reached.

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The Yoga of Meditation by Swami Krishnananda

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Purpose of Life by Gurudev Sivananda Maharaj

Purpose of Life

Sri Swami Sivananda

The life of man is an indication of what is beyond him and what determines the course of his thoughts, feelings and actions. The wider life is invisible, and the visible is a shadow cast by the invisible which is the real. The shadow gives an idea of the substance, and one can pursue the path to the true substance by the perception of the shadow. Human existence, by the fact of its limitations, wants and various forms of restlessness, discontent and sorrow, points to a higher desired end, incomprehensible though the nature of this end be.

As life on this earth is characterized by incessant change, and nothing here seems to have the character of reality, nothing here can satisfy man completely. The Bhagavad Gita has referred to this world as anityam, asukham, duhkhalayam, ashashvatam—‘impermanent, unhappy, the abode of sorrow, transient’. The sages of yore declared with immediate realization that ‘Truth is One’ and that the goal of human life is the realization and the experience of this Truth.

The universe is inconstant, and it is only a field of experience provided to the individuals so that they may evolve towards the experience of the Highest Truth. It is the glory of the people of Bharatavarsha (India) that to them the visible universe is not real and the invisible Eternal alone is real. They have no faith in what they perceive with the senses. They have faith only in that which is the ground of all experience, beyond the senses, beyond even the individual mind.

Earnest seekers used to seek shelter under great sages who purified the holy region of the Himalayas with their mighty presence, and lived the austere life of Yogis in order to attain freedom from the trammels of earth-bound life and rest in the beatitude of the Absolute, Brahman. This they considered the true life, and thus the way of fulfilling the law of the Eternal.

The great law-giver Manu, after describing the various tenets of dharma, finally asserts: “Of all these dharmas, the Knowledge of the Self is the highest; it is verily the foremost of all sciences; for, by it, one attains immortality.” The pursuit of dharma, artha and kama has its meaning in the attainment of moksha which is the greatest of all the purusharthas (ends of human life). Dharma is the ethical and moral value of life; artha is its material value; and kama is its vital value; but moksha is the infinite value of existence which covers all the others and is itself far greater than all these. Others exist as aids or preparations for moksha. Without moksha they have no value and convey no meaning. Their value is conditioned by the law of the Infinite, which is the same as moksha.

The Vedas and the Upanishads are the expiration of the Divine Being, and they give an exhaustive commentary on spiritual life. They are expositions of the significance and the import of human life and of the method of the transmutation of the mortal appearance into the Immortal Essence. The instance of the great Nachiketas and the story of his adventurous search for Truth narrated in the thrilling Katha Upanishad serve as exemplars to all men capable of thought and reflection.

Nothing of the world of sensibility can be of real value—this is what Nachiketas taught through his memorable act of renunciation. Not even the longest life and the immense wealth offered to him could tempt him. He persevered in his quest for the Highest, and in the end achieved the Highest. Nothing short of it could satisfy him. Such are the true heroes. A real hero is not he who stands against bullets or risks his life in hazardous attempts, fights battles, dives into oceans and climbs high cliffs, but he who subdues his senses and overcomes his mind, recognizes the supreme unity of life and casts aside dualities and desires. To achieve this is the duty of man; this is the immortal message of the sages of the Upanishads.

The tangle of sense-experience in which man is caught is most vexing, and hard it is to free oneself from it. Man is deluded by the notion of the reality of the so-called external relations of things, and thus he comes to grief. The Mahabharata says that the contact of beings in this universe is like the contact of logs of wood in a flowing river, temporary. Yet the attachment to sense-percepts is so strong that phantoms are mistaken for facts, the impure is mistaken for the pure, the painful for the pleasant, and the not-self for the Self.

The message of the ancient sages is that the life one lives in the sense-world is deceptive, for it hides the Existence underlying all things and makes one feel that the particular presentation of forms before the senses alone is real. “Children run after external pleasures and fall into the net of wide-spread death. The heroes, however, knowing the Immortal, seek not the Eternal among things unstable here,” says the Upanishad. The call of the ancient sages to man is: “O son of the Immortal! Know yourself as the Infinite; become the All. This is the supreme blessing. This is the supreme bliss.” This is the undying message to man.

The sages have again and again stressed: “If one knows It (i.e. the Immortal Being) here, then there is the true end of all aspirations; if one does not know It here, great is the loss for him.” (Kena Upanishad). And sage Yajnavalkya says that all great deeds done in this world, without the knowledge of the One Imperishable Being, are not worth anything. Humanitarian services, fasts and charity, one’s political, national, social and individual life, should all be based on the feeling of universal brotherhood which is the eternal expression of the Reality of universal Selfhood.

Humanity can hope for peace when this condition, discovered and laid down by the rishis, (viz. abiding by the law of the Divine) is fulfilled. Peace can be had only to the extent that the system of the Divine is adhered to in life. And this peace is inversely proportional to the love of body, individuality and its relations in the world, in which humanity is generally steeped. An ‘awakening’ of a higher consciousness is necessary so that disorder and discontent may be abolished.

Education of humanity in the right direction is the precondition of world peace. Materialism, atheism, scepticism and agnosticism which are rampant in these days, and which have robbed man of his reverence for the Supreme Absolute, are mainly responsible for the increasing selfishness, craving, confusion, violence and agitation of mind that are seething in the world. Man should learn that behind the appearance of materiality, discreteness, externality, doubt and impermanence, there is the reality of spirituality, unity and infinity. 

Additional reading "What life has taught me" by Swami Sivananda