(Feb 18,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Structure of the Universe by Swami Krishnananda

The Structure of the Universe

Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 3 The Philosophy of Religion by Swami Krishnananda

What Is Reality?

There are two aspects of experience – the real and the unreal; and everything can be divided into two camps – that which really is, and that which is an appearance. That which does not partake of the characteristics of reality is called appearance. Reality is that which persists in the three periods of time, that which existed in the past, that which exists in the present, and that which shall exist in the future also, without any change. But, with our eyes, we have not seen any such thing. There is nothing in the world which will stand this kind of a test of indestructibility, unchangeability, and permanence. The inherent instinctive feeling of man that there exists such a reality, along with the urge to find a solution to the human predicament, motivates the search for reality, which starts with the analysis of the immediately available human experience, which is the world.

The World Is Mechanistic in Nature

The material world is the reality before man - the physical world of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. The world, or the universe, under the definition of being constituted of basic physical molecules, was defined as mechanistic in its nature. We can precisely say how the machine works by a study of its parts. The whole can be studied by a study of the parts. This led to materialist science, and behaviorist psychology.

The mechanistic notion of the universe was confirmed scientifically and mathematically by such thinkers as Newton and his follower Laplace, who thought that the whole astronomical universe is capable of interpretation, almost like the working of a clock – and everyone knows how a clock works. It has no life, yet it works. So, the whole universal action is a lifeless action, and bodily action is similar to that. If it appears that human beings have life, it is only an epiphenomenon, a projection, a sort of appearance including even the intelligence and the mind; so they believed.

The Presence of Consciousness Needs Explanation

The relationship between two things matter and consciousness has to be explained. Matter is the cause of intelligence: that is the thesis. But matter is everywhere. Therefore, the effect, which is intelligence, also, has to be everywhere, wherever matter is. This implies matter and consciousness are everywhere simultaneously. How can this be possible? Even if this position is accepted, another difficulty arises, which is not easily solved: viz., the relationship between effect and cause.

There can be an identity or a difference between two things. A can be the same as B, or A is not the same as B. There cannot be a third relationship between two things. If A is the same as B, it is useless to call it A; unnecessarily another name is given to it. But if A is not B, it has no connection with B. Hence, it bears no relation to it. Therefore, it cannot be an effect of the cause.

Consciousness cannot be an effect of matter if it does not bear any relationship to matter. Thus, the relationship, if it obtains at all, has to be one of identity or difference. If it is identical, materialism falls in one second. The whole matter which is the universe would be aglow with consciousness. But if it is different, it does not follow that consciousness is exuded by matter. It stands as a separate identity. Then, its relationship to matter remains unexplained.

Samkhya, or Dualistic Philosophy

People felt a difficulty of their own in identifying consciousness with matter. So they created a philosophy of their own called Samkhya – "I cannot be the same as the body, and the body cannot be the same as me; consciousness is not matter, matter is not consciousness; yet both exist; I can see the body, and I can see that I have intelligence, also. So, intelligence is different from matter; Purusha is different from Prakriti."

A new genie was created, a kind of a goblin, as it were, viz., the individual Jiva, the mixture of Purusha and Prakriti, a little of consciousness and a little of matter, by an imaginary relationship brought about between the two principles.

The Doctrine of Samkhya Is basically not Different From Materialism

Samkhya is only a restatement of the same problem of the materialists. The problem in the concept of materiality is the relationship between matter and consciousness. Previously what is called matter, is now called Prakriti; and what is earlier called consciousness is now called Purusha. The doctrine of Samkhya is nothing but a materialistic doctrine itself, which has been reshaped by a camouflage of a so-called spirituality of Purusha.

What is then, the relationship between Purusha and Prakriti? There is no relationship absolutely. There cannot be any relationship, because they are two utterly different elements. If they are utterly different, how does one know that they are different? Who is making this statement that Purusha is different from Prakriti? It cannot be said that Prakriti is making this statement, because it is unconscious; nor can it be said that Purusha is making this statement, because it has no connection with Prakriti. It cannot even know that Prakriti exists. But, if it knows that Prakriti exists, it has established a relationship already; its independence has failed. And, if the establishment of relationship has taken place, the nature of this relationship between the two has to be explained, a difficulty which was initially envisaged in understanding or studying the materialistic philosophy.

Patanjali's Proposition

The Yoga of Patanjali is based on the metaphysics of Samkhya, but it differs from Samkhya in one important point. How could anyone think of these two different principles Purusha and Prakriti, unless there is a thinker of the two things? The person, the element, or the principle, that is aware of the existence of Prakriti on this side, and Purusha on the other, remains as a third thing altogether. Such a witnessing principle cannot belong to either Purusha, or to Prakriti. But the Samkhya says that there cannot be a third thing. For it, there are only two things. The Samkhya defeats itself by positing two utterly different principles.

Who willed originally, who laid down this law that one body of matter should pull another body of matter in a particular manner? Why should there be this law of gravitation at all? Everything can be independent of, or different from, everything else. But, that does not seem to be the case. There is mutual action and reaction seen among bodies. One part sets up action, another part sets up reaction. There must be a connection between the two. Otherwise, there is no reaction of action. So, the third principle is called Isvara, in the language of the Yoga of Patanjali.

Instead of solving the difficulty of explaining the relation between two things, Patanjali seems to create another problem of a need to find a relation between three things, Prakriti, Purusha and Isvara. How are they related to each other? Are they identical, or different? Now, again, the problem of identity and difference arises.

Philosophy seems to have failed. The analysis of the world leads us nowhere. The problems remain as problems, unanswered, after a little bit of preliminary thought philosophically.

Excerpts from:

The Structure of The Universe: Chapter 3 The Philosophy of Religion by Swami Krishnananda

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(Sep 23,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Advice to Businessmen by Swami Sivananda

  Advice to Businessmen

Divine Life Society Publication: Advice to Businessmen by Swami Sivananda

There is a business ethics and a businessman should practice this ethics. Only then he will not be affected by sin. Only then he will prosper.

People say that one will have to tell lies in business if he wants to prosper. This is a serious mistake. Those who are strictly honest and truthful will flourish in business. More customers will go to them only, as they are truthful in their dealings.

If you enter a cloth- merchant’s shop, he says first that one yard costs Rs. 8/-, then bargaining or haggling goes on for one or two hours. At last he comes down to Rs 1.50 per yard. This sort of business goes on in most of the business-houses. Cheating and falsehood are the basic traits of a businessman. His conscience has been blunted by covetousness and dishonesty. He is miserable in this world despite his wealth and possessions and will be unhappy in the next world also, because he is not leading a moral life. He does not know what he is exactly doing, as his understanding is clouded. He who tells lies and cheats others is leading an immoral life. He is also an immoral man in the broad sense of the term.

A manufacturer mixes small stones in the wheat. Another businessman adulterates ghee, flour and other foodstuffs. The carpenter uses inferior quality of wood and charges the price of the best wood. A contractor uses third-class bricks and charges for first-class bricks, etc. These are all instances of cheating.

What is this glittering prosperity in the business, after all? To eat a little delicious food, to move in a car, to become a Municipal Councilor cannot give you everlasting happiness. This is not the goal of life. This is a foolish man’s idea of happiness. Quite puerile indeed! These are all toys of ignorant children. Wise people will laugh at these things.

Earn your bread by honest means. Dishonesty and cheating will bring on you incurable diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, ulcer in the stomach, fistula, deafness, dumbness, blindness, burning in the heart and feet, and deformity of limbs in your next birth. Action and reaction are equal and opposite. You will have to suffer in your next birth for every wrong deed you commit in this birth. Be careful in your thought, speech and action. Be good and do good. Understand the law of cause and effect.

Spend one-tenth of your income in charity. Charity covers multitude of sins. Do regular charity. Merely giving a few rupees in charity occasionally when you are in distress, is not praiseworthy.

Take a moderate and reasonable profit. Be truthful and honest in your dealings. Do not smother and kill your conscience. Keep your conscience ever clean and pure. Do abundant charity. You can prosper in your business. You will not be tainted and corrupted by business. Goddess Lakshmi will ever dwell with you.

Do Satyanarayana Katha every full-moon day. Help social and religious institutions. Open Sanskrit schools and Ayurvedic dispensaries, hospitals, girls’ schools, free primary schools. Dig wells in the villages. Construct Sankirtan Bhavans. Let your profit be well utilized in charitable purposes. You will earn great merit. You will be happy here and in the next world.

If you are ever conscious that the Lord or the Indweller is witnessing your thoughts and actions, if you really have understood the law of cause and effect, you will not dare to do any wrong deed, you will try to avoid evil action and gradually minimize your wrong deeds.

If you have really understood the Vedantic truth of oneness you will not try to deceive others. In deceiving others you deceive yourself. In helping others you help yourself. There is only one Self in all beings. That is the only Reality.

Excerpts from:

Advice to Businessmen by Swami Sivananda

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(Sep 20,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Search for Reality

The Search for Reality

Divine Life Society Publication: The Search for Reality by Swami Krishnananda

What is Reality? Reality is that which never changes, which is absolute, unlimited, and is never contradicted by any other thing or experience. How is it known that Reality is changeless? Well, then, let us take for granted that Reality is changing. Now, what is change? Change is a modification of something from one condition to another condition. All actions presuppose an actionless being. How does one know that there is change in anything? The consciousness of change means the consciousness of the death of one condition of a thing and of the birth of its other condition. That means, the knower of change exists even when one condition of that changeful thing ceases to be, and it exists also when another of its conditions rises or is given birth to. The knower of change does not change. If the knower of change changes, there can be no such thing as knowledge or awareness of change. The changeless consciousness, which is the unaffected and undivided witness of all change, is the Reality. Thus it is proved that Reality is changeless.

Now, can Reality be known? If it is known, what is its nature? If one particle is different from another particle, what is that which exists between two particles. If there is no distinction among the particles, there can be no particles or protons and electrons, but there can only be a huge mass of energy which is indistinguishable. Is it conscious or inert? If the whole universe is but this one energy, the scientist who is the knower of this energy cannot be excluded from it or be outside it. If this energy is inert in its nature, the knower of this energy, also, should be inert, for the knower is a part of Reality, which is this energy, according to the scientist. The final conclusion therefore is that if knowledge exists in the knower, this energy must be knowledge in its nature, so that the ultimate Reality becomes not an inert mass of energy but indivisible consciousness.

What is the basis for consciousness? If consciousness is to proceed from matter or energy, the essential nature of this matter or energy should be consciousness or intelligence. Illumination, understanding, constitutes the essential nature of consciousness.  If the very existence of consciousness is denied, matter becomes a myth when it is bereft of relation to consciousness. Consciousness is the fundamental being.

Now, does the scientist admit the existence of an ultimate Reality? How does he know that Reality exists? He knows this through observation and experiment. His experience consists of the knowledge of Reality, which he derives as a result of observation through the senses. If Reality can be known through the senses, the senses should be changeless, even as Reality is. But, are the senses changeless? Definitely not. The senses are instruments of knowledge, and if the instruments which are used in observation are defective, the knowledge which is received through them cannot be perfect. The senses have a particular constitution, they have a particular make-up, and if this constitution or make-up is changed, the knowledge which is received through them also will change. The senses are changing, and therefore Reality which is changeless cannot be known through the senses. Even the changeless, when it is seen through the changing, will appear as changing, for the object of knowledge always partakes of the qualities of the means of knowledge. The senses cannot give us Reality. As the man of physical science has the senses as his sole means of knowledge, he cannot know Reality with his knowledge.

Then, what is Reality, and how can one know Reality? The only means of knowledge which remains to be considered, other than the senses, is the mind. Can the philosopher know Reality with the help of his rationalistic mind? For this, the mind itself has to be examined. The mind changes from one person to another person, and from one condition to another condition even in the same person. The stronghold of the mind is reason, logic and argumentation. But the mind works within the realm limited by its own constitution built up by the hypothetical notions of space, time and causation (quantity, quality, relation and modality). These categories which constitute the nature and the workings of the mind limit its operations, and thus it cannot have a changeless knowledge of Reality as such, independent of its modes. Therefore, the philosopher who is totally dependent upon the workings of the schematizing mind, too, cannot know Reality. The mind is an individualistic principle, and so it is changeful. The mind works in the waking and the dreaming states. The Reality cannot be known in these two states – the waking and the dreaming states, because here the mind is functioning with its categories, and as long as this mind is the means of knowing Reality, one cannot have perfect knowledge of Reality as such.

Perhaps, there is a possibility of knowing Reality as such in the state of deep sleep. In deep sleep there is no action of the mind and the senses. Therefore the individual in the state of deep sleep is not obstructed by the categories of the mind and the limitations of the senses. But, unfortunately, one does not have experience of consciousness in the deep sleep state. Hence, in this deep sleep state also, Reality cannot be known, for, when there is no conscious experience at all, there can be no knowledge of Reality. And all people have the experiences only of these three states, and nothing else. Hence no man on earth, who is limited to these three states, can know Reality as such.

Memory is the effect of impressions left of a past immediate experience. There is a common consciousness which is the link connecting the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping. But for this one consciousness there would be no continuity or survival of personality. Therefore there should have been the consciousness of existence in deep sleep, even if it appeared to be covered by ignorance. As everything – ignorance, change, objectness and every phenomenon – is known to a conscious subject, and nothing prior or antecedent to knowledge or consciousness is ever possible, the essential existence of the knower should be pure consciousness or knowledge itself.

All objects in this universe are limited by space and time. Is consciousness also limited in this way? In order to have a consciousness of something outside consciousness, consciousness should exceed and extend beyond its limitation. That is, consciousness should be unlimited.

In conclusion, the essential existence of the knower, therefore, is unlimited knowledge – absolute consciousness. Only this can be the Reality. Here, the object and the subject coalesce and become one existence. The knower and the known are one. The universe is not objective, not a phenomenon outside. Consciousness is not inert, not divided, not a mass of particles called atoms, protons and electrons, not waves of probability, not an indistinguishable, indeterminable, dark mass of energy, but pure consciousness – indivisible, infinite, immortal, eternal, absolute. This is the only Reality, and it is identical with pure experience as one with itself, not to be known by any other – known as itself by itself, as existence, consciousness and bliss in one, independent of body, senses, the vital energies, mind, intellect, ignorance, cause, effect, and all relative phenomena. Consciousness as such is Reality. It is realized through deep meditation, in direct experience.

Excerpts from:

The Search for Reality by Swami Krishnananda

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(July 22,2013) The Power of Self-Restraint

  The Power of Self-Restraint

Divine Life Society Publication: Spoken on Guru Purnima in 1992 by Swami Krishnananda

On this holy Sri Vyasa Purnima, known as Sri Guru Purnima, which symbolises before us a fullness of every kind, we invoke that mighty presence of Bhagavan Sri Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, who shines in this world as the radiant sun in the sky. Even as the light of the sun is pervading all space and yet we can behold the glory of the orb of the sun at a particular spot in the sky, so also while the majesty and power and aura and blessing of this great master pervades the whole earth, it is said in the scriptures that he is principally stationed in sacred Badrika Ashrama, representing the power and the light of utter self-restraint – a power that is God’s, as whose complete representation has incarnated himself on this earth to establish the dharma, or the law self-control, as establishment in Truth.

The power of this great master is the power of self-restraint. His presence is not in a location somewhere, on some particular spot exclusively, but is a mighty influence exerted everywhere, whereby he identifies his presence with all existence – due to which it is that the power of existence itself reveals itself in him. The greater is the capacity to restrain oneself, the greater also is the power one feels within one’s own self.

We have heard that there is a variety of powers in this world. There is monetary power, muscular power, political power, social power, intellectual power, and a variety of these things – but these are all external to the wielder of the power. In some cases they are only foisted upon a person. But the powers of great masters like Bhagavan Sri Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa are not adjectives to their existence. They are not their qualifications. They are their very presence.

Self-restraint is itself a power because of the fact that all the avenues of depletion of energy get transmuted into the very existence of the saint or the seeker or the sage, and the channels through which energy moves out in the direction of things and objects in the world get melted down, as it were, in the process of self-control. Things become the very subject, the very meditator, the contemplator, the beholder, the visualiser of themselves.

Weakness is the effect of the transferring of our being to something other than what we are. The more you think of things other than what you are, the weaker are also your sense organs, your mind, your intellect. People have a wrong notion that they become stronger by the possession of a larger quantum of things in the world. Rather, the greater is your possession, the weaker is your personality. The more is your property, the weaker you are. The weaker you are, the greater is your desire to own things in the world. The stronger you are, the lesser is the need of any kind in this world.

Such great masters like Bhagavan Sri Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa are themselves all things. You may be wondering how it is possible for anyone to be all things. That our Atman is all-pervading is something known to you all, a message that has been dinned into our ears by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj especially, and all the saints and sages in the country. The omnipresence of the Atman, which is the real being of everyone, is actually the omnipresence of yourself, basically and contemplation on the Atman draws into oneself the power of omnipresence.

If the curtain of space is lifted, we will find ourselves everywhere. It is interference of the time process that makes us feel that we are living only at some time. If the curtain of time is lifted, we will find ourselves at all times. So, the lifting of the spatial curtain will make us feel that we are infinite, and the lifting of the curtain of time will make us feel that we are eternal. Therefore, the effort of the art of yoga consisting in the transcending of oneself above the limitations of space and time will bring about a blend of infinity and eternity. The question of desiring for things will not arise anymore.

Desire is a disease; it is a malady; it is an illness; it is not a virtue at all. But contrary is the way in which the lower mind contemplates things. The larger is the area of the operation of desires, the more a person seems to be feeling happy inside. This is total introversion, upside-down thinking, a topsy-turvy way of looking at things, and a headlong rushing into an area of self-destruction.

The Message of Bhagavan Sri Krishna Dvaipayana Vysya , one of the Chiranjivis, is about utter self-control and contemplation on that majesty of Reality, which is ever present and is seeing us with its multiple eyes.

May our hearts open. May we break our limitations of thinking. May we desire nothing, because we need nothing. May you contemplate these truths deeply in your heart and soul and receive the abundant grace of these divine masters, is my humble prayer on this sacred occasion of Sri Guru Purnima. God bless you.

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The Power of Self-Restraint Spoken on Guru Purnima in 1992 by Swami Krishnananda

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Guide to Sadhaks by Sri Swami Sivananda

Divine Life Society Publication

1. Reduce your wants to the utmost minimum.
2. Adapt yourself to circumstances.
3. Never be attached to anything or anybody.
4. Share what you have with others.
5. Be ever ready to serve. Lose no opportunity. Serve with Atma bhava.
6. Entertain akarta (non-doer) and sakshi bhava (feeling that you are a witness).
7. Speak measured and sweet words.
8. Have a burning thirst for God-realization.
9. Renounce all your belongings and surrender yourself unto God.
10. Spiritual path is a sharp-edged razor path. A guru is absolutely necessary.
11. Have great patience and perseverance.
12. Never leave the abhyasa (practice) even for a day.
13. The guru will only guide you. You should yourself tread the path.
14. Life is short. Time of death is uncertain. Apply yourself seriously to yoga sadhana.
15. Maintain daily spiritual diary and record correctly your progress and failures. Stick to resolves.
16. Do not complain that there is no time for sadhana. Reduce sleep and tall talk. Stick to Brahma-muhurta.
17. Let the thought of God (Reality) keep away the thought of the world.
18. Forget the feeling that you are so and so—a male or a female—by vigorous Brahma chintana (constant thinking of Brahman).
19. Never postpone a thing for tomorrow if it is possible for you to do it today.
20. Do not boast or make a show of your abilities. Be simple and humble.
21. Be cheerful always. Give up worries.
22. Be indifferent to things that do not concern you.
23. Fly away from company and discussion.
24. Be alone for a few hours daily.
25. Give up greediness, jealousy and hoarding.
26. Control your emotions by discrimination and vairagya.
27. Maintain equilibrium of mind always.
28. Think twice before you speak and thrice before you act.
29. Give up back-biting, criticizing and fault-finding. Beware of reactions.
30. Find out your own faults and weaknesses. See only good in others. Praise the virtues of others.
31. Forgive and forget the harm done by others. Do good to those who hate you.
32. Shun lust, anger, egoism, moha (infatuation) and lobha (greed), like a venomous cobra.
33. Be prepared to suffer any amount of pain.
34. Have a set of maxims always with you to induce vairagva (dispassion).
35. Treat sensual enjoyment as poison, vomited food, vishta or urine. They cannot give you satisfaction.
36. Preserve your virya (seminal energy) carefully. Sleep always separately.
37. Revere ladies as Mother Divine. Root out the sex idea. Prostrate before all.
38. See God in every face, in everything.
39. Take to sankirtan, satsanga and prayer when the mind is overpowered by lower instincts.
40. Face obstacles coolly and boldly.
41. Care not for criticism when you are in the right path. Yield not to flattery.
42. Respect rogues and scoundrels. Serve them.
43. Admit your faults plainly.
44. Take care of your health. Do not neglect daily asanas and exercises.
45. Be active and nimble always.
46. Develop your heart by giving. Be extraordinarily charitable. Give more than one’s expectations.
47. Desires multiply misery. Develop contentment.
48. Control the senses one by one.
49. Develop Brahmakara vritti by repeated thinking.
50. Have a check over all your thoughts. Keep them pure and sublime.
51. Do not lose temper when anybody insults, taunts or rebukes you. It is a mere play of words and a variety of sounds.
52. Rest your mind in God and live in truth.
53. Be up and doing in the path of perfection.
54. Have a definite aim in your life and proceed cautiously. 

(Apr15, 2013) Yoga way of Analysis (The Aim of Objective Analysis)

Yoga way of Analysis

From Divine Life Society Publication “The Yoga System” by Swami Krishnananda

As all thoughts can be reduced to five types of internal function, all objects can be reduced to five bhutas or elements. The five great elements are called pancha-mahabhutas, and they are (1) Ether (akasa), (2) Air (vayu), (3) Fire (agni), (4) Water (apas) and (5) Earth (prithivi). The elements constitute the whole physical cosmos. These are the real objects of the senses, and all the variety we see is made up of forms of these objects.

Our sensations are the five objects and we sense through the indriyas or sense-organs. With the sense of the ear we come in contact with Ether and hear sound which is a reverberation produced by Ether. Touch is the property of Air, felt by us with the tactile sense. With the sense of the eyes we contact light which is the property of Fire. With the palate we taste things, which is the property of Water. With the nose we smell objects, and this is the property of Earth.

There is the vast universe, and we know it with our senses. We live in a world of fivefold objects. The senses are incapable of knowing anything more than these elements. The internal organ, as informed and influenced by the objects, deals with them in certain manners, and this is life. The yoga is primarily concerned with the personal life of man in relation to the universe, and not the social life, for, in the social environment, one's real personality is rarely revealed. Yoga is essentially a study of self by self, a process of Self-investigation (atma-vichara) and Self-realization (atma-sakshatkara). The Self envisaged here is a consciousness of gradual integration of reality, and it finally encompasses all experience and the whole universe in its being.

While the psychology of yoga comprises the functions of the internal organ, and its physics is of the five great objects or mahabhutas, the philosophy of yoga transcends both these stages of study. The yoga metaphysics holds that the body is not all, and even the five elements are not all. We do not see what is inside the body and also what is within the universe of five elements. A different set of senses would be necessary for knowing these larger secrets. Yoga finally leads us to this point. When we set out on this adventure, we begin to converge slowly at a single centre, like the two sides of a triangle that taper at one point. The so-called wide base of the world on which we move does not disclose the truth of ourselves or of objects. At this point of convergence of ourselves and of things, we need not look at objects, and here no senses are necessary, for, in this experience, there are neither selves nor things. There is only one Reality, where the universal object and the universal subject become a unitary existence. Neither is that an experience of a subject nor an object, where is revealed a knowledge of the whole cosmos, at once, not through the senses, mind or intellect - for there are no objects - and there is only being that is consciousness.

 

Yoga is, therefore, spiritual, superphysical or supermaterial, because materiality is shed in its achievement, and consciousness reigns supreme. This is the highest object of yoga, where the individual and the universe do not stand apart as two entities but come together in a fraternal embrace. The purpose of the yoga way of analysis is an overcoming of the limitations of both subjectivity and objectivity and a union of the deepest within us with the deepest in the cosmos.

Continue to read:

“The Aim of Objective Analysis – The Yoga System” by Swami Krishnananda

“The Purpose of Life” by Swami Sivananda

(Apr 4, 2013) Spiritual Message of the Day: The Sacrifice of the Ego to Realize the Absolute

The Sacrifice of the Ego to Realize the Absolute

From Divine Life Society Publication “The Realisation of the Absolute” by Swami Krishnananda

(A Treatise on the Vedanta Philosophy and Its Methodology)

The whole theme of the Upanishads is centred in two fundamental conceptions of Reality—Brahman and Atman. Both words are often used to mean the same thing. “This Atman is Brahman” (Mand. Up., 2.). The philosophy of the main declarations of the Upanishads, consists essentially of the eight conclusions. This is the Ultimate Truth, transcending empiricality, extending beyond the egoism of human nature.

The whole process of the realisation of Truth is, therefore, a sacrifice of the ego, and is a great pain. Suffering in the process of the experiencing of Infinitude cannot be abolished for the individual so long as the individual itself is inconsistent with the Infinite. Hence, the attempt towards the attainment of the perfectly Real is generally looked upon with a sense of fear, disgust and even hatred.

The human being is always attached to the immediate concerns of life. He has no eye to look to the beyond. He is grieved about the past, doubtful about the future and worried about the present. He is ever diseased in his spirit due to his violation of the eternal law. He is caught in the whirl of ignorance, passion and sin, and is constantly dashed by the huge waves of uncontrollable sorrow. He ceaselessly dies to himself in time. His whole life is a flux of states—now destroyed, now renewed. He has no idea of anything besides himself, anything that is vaster and truer. He is imprisoned within his fragile body, within his whimsical mind, within his childish intellect, within his conceited individuality. A shower of superphysical knowledge upon him seems to be music played before the deaf. He thinks too highly about himself.

The Upanishads are not unaware of the futile attempts of man to grasp the Limitless Being, and they warn him that it is not to be comprehended through logic, but to be heard from the wise one (Katha Up., II. 8, 9). Reason is meant to strengthen belief in what is heard from reliable sources, and not to walk unaided. It is an empty pride to think that one can depend totally on oneself and reach the Eternal. Reason and faith should go hand in hand if the desired fruit is to be reaped. That which is agreeable at present does not remain so the next moment, nor does the disagreeable appear so forever. The immutable Reality is unperceived and unfelt, and the apparition seems to give us life, light and joy.

The sole purpose of the Upanishad teaching is to disentangle man from the chain of samsara, to show him the way to the Glorious Light that shines within himself. Man is not a sinful mortal creature in truth; the Upanishad calls him “son of the Immortal”— amritasya putra (Svet. Up., II. 5). But he can know himself only through sacrificing himself. The highest sacrifice is the offering of the self to the Absolute. The greatest yoga is the sinking of the self into unity with the Absolute, by denying the separate, and asserting the One.

Such an act compels the relative self-interest to dissolve itself in the Absolute-Interest, which soars high above the limitations of Space and Time, and establishes itself in the perfect satisfaction and uncontradicted experience of completeness and utter Reality. The awareness of the state of the Pure Self unimpeded by phenomenal laws or separative restrictions, and the infinite rejoicing in the free flow of the law of the Spirit, is the life of the exalted Self-realised one. He exists as the Divine Being, which is the supreme condition of the fullest freedom of Eternity.

The mocking expectations and hopes that confront the human being in his struggle for existence, give him opportunities to discriminate the Eternal, and direct him on the way that leads to the realisation of the Absolute.

Continue to read:

“The Realisation of the Absolute” by Swami Krishnananda

“Shun the Ego” by Swami Krishnananda

“Life as a Yajna or Sacrifice” by Swami Krishnananda

(March 15,2013) Atman is Brahman by Swami Krishnananda

The teachings of the Bhagavadgita Chapter 5: Life as a Yagna or Sacrifice

by Swami Krishnananda

The world of sense-perception is conditioned by space-time and the various categories of the psychological process; while the thing, the person, the being, the substance as it is in itself, is behind this curtain of space-time. Our real being also is behind this curtain of the psycho-physical individuality. Thus we are living in a phenomenal world, both subjectively and objectively. The thing-in-itself, as they say, the substance as such, eludes the grasp of this phenomenal process - thus no man can see God, and the intellect of man is not fit enough to contact reality. Unless we develop a mechanism within our own selves to go deeper into this large area of phenomenality – subjectively as well as objectively – the plumbing into one's own self is also the plumbing through space and time. Modern science says the inward, subjective, subatomic philosophy of quantum theory is identical with the spatio-temporal theory of relativity – Tat tvam asi: That is this and this is That. The inward depth is also the outward plumbing of the abyss of space and time. The deeper we go inwardly, simultaneously there is a going deep into the outer cosmos – and vice-versa, the plumbing into the cosmos objectively would also imply a going deep into one's own self. Knowledge of the self is the knowledge of the universe, and the knowledge of the universe is the knowledge of the self. Atman is Brahman. (From The teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita by Swami Krishnananda – Chapter5: Life as a Yagna or Sacrifice)

Continue to read:

The teachings of the Bhagavadgita Chapter 5: Life as a Yagna or Sacrifice by Swami Krishnananda

 inspiring messages from Swami Sivananda, Divine Life Society, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India

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

Svadyaya for Mar 16,2013 - The True Purpose of Life by Swami Chidananda

The True Purpose of Life

Glorious Immortal Self! There is a permanent Reality behind this entire universe. That great reality is of the nature of Bliss and blessedness. It is a state of untrammeled (not confined or limited) freedom, limitless peace, boundless wisdom and indescribable Bliss. And that Bliss, freedom, peace, wisdom and joy is your essential and eternal state. That is your real abode. That is your ultimate journey. This life has been given to you in order to realize that Reality. It is this achievement and achievement alone, which is the central purpose of your life.

Indian philosophy declares in bold and unmistakable terms that the great aim of human life is to attain supreme Bliss. It asserts: “All beings in this universe have come forth from Bliss, in Bliss they are sustained, and they are destined to attain that Bliss.” It is this perennial Bliss, which indeed is the great and ultimate Truth and Reality. The great ones who have realized through their intense inner effort the nature of the ultimate Reality, have stated in clear and unmistakable terms: “O mortals, you cannot find unalloyed perfect Happiness and Bliss in this imperfect and limited phenomenal universe. The ultimate state of joy and Bliss can be had only within your own Self, which has its source in the permanent and eternal Reality. All Bliss lie within you. You are yourself that Bliss.” This is your nature. The rediscovery of that living awareness of Bliss is the great purpose of your life. This is the goal of life for which we have taken birth on this earth-plane.

Life is not a haphazard flight from one object to another. Life is a quest full of significance and meaning. Therefore the sooner the eyes are opened to the great meaning of life, the greater the degree of perfection that will be attained. Otherwise, life would be like setting upon a journey without direction, or like getting onto a highway without the knowledge of the destination or route. Life is very precious. Say: “I have come here to realize the supreme state of blessedness and to experience the highest Bliss. I have been given this unique opportunity of a human birth in order to attain the ultimate goal.” The chance is now given to you. Who knows if the keen state of aspiration and devotion to the ideal will continue? Therefore, now is the time to make a supreme effort to realize the true purpose of life. Now is the time to make an earnest effort to attain the highest blessedness and the wondrous bliss of Realization

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God Bless You!

Swami Chidananda 

Additional reading material 

Chapter 6 - Your True purpose in Life (page 41) The path beyond sorrow by Swami Chidananda