(Sep 17,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Knowledge is Existence

Knowledge is Existence

Divine Life Society Publication: Lesson 13 Lessons on the Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda

A stone exists, a plant or a tree exists, an animal or a creature exists, and a human being also exists. Would you like to exist like a stone? Perhaps stones exist for a longer period than human beings. A human being cannot live as long as a rock, for instance. But would you like to be a rock because it would enable you to exist for longer than as a man or a woman? Would you like to be a crawling creature, an elephant, a plant or a tree? Even trees are capable of surviving for hundreds of years. Do you like to consider a tree as superior to man because of the longer life that it enjoys? No, you consider man as superior to a tree or to a beast of the jungle, or to a stone. The reason is the transparency of consciousness in the human personality, the widened vision which a person, as a human being, is capable of. Man is more powerful than even an elephant; you know it very well. Man can control even an elephant, a tiger or a lion, though from the point of view of physical survival and physical strength, man is inferior to an elephant or a lion. It is said that knowledge is power, and here is an illustration of the way in which man considers himself to be more secure than the other species in creation. Animals are not as secure as human beings. Man guards himself in many ways; animals cannot do that. All this is to illustrate the fact that knowledge is security, power, satisfaction and true existence.

How will you blend knowledge with your existence? Every day you pass through the hours of the day and night; you have got the routine of your work. How does this knowledge benefit you in any way whatsoever? Are you in any way better, qualitatively, in your existence than you were yesterday – or are you only a quantity and there is no quality? The advantage of education is that every day you feel a greater clarity of your thoughts and a broadened form of your vision of life, a greater satisfaction within your own self, a lesser need for contact with things and persons, and a conviction within that you are approximating to the reality of life in a greater measure than you could have done some years earlier.

Education is, actually, a gaining of insight into the nature of the truths of existence, the realities of life. If the realities of life stare at you even after you are educated, and you are not acquainted with the art of living in this world – you find yourself a stranger in this wide world of nature and society even after you are a degree-holder or a learned person in some way – that education cannot be regarded as real education, because it has not entered into your blood. It is not part of your personality. It is not you; it is a commodity that you are carrying, like luggage on the head. It is a property, and a property is not identical with the owner of the property. The property can leave you any day because it is something owned as an external item, not actually being a part of your own existence. If the knowledge that you have gained is only luggage that you are carrying, like bedding, and you can throw it away at any time you like – it is not you, but it is yours – then consciousness is not existence in this case. Existence does not possess consciousness. Consciousness is not a quality of existence; it is not a property. And, also, existence does not own consciousness as an external appendage. Existence is consciousness. Sat is chit. Satyamjnanam-anantam brahma (Tait. 2.1.1), the Taittiriya Upanishad has told us: "Truth – Knowledge – Infinity is Brahman, the Absolute." That is to say, Reality, Existence, Consciousness, Infinity mean one and the same thing.

Excerpts from:

Knowledge is Existence - Lesson 13 Lessons on the Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?

If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org

(July 26,2013) Process of Initiation by The Guru

Process of Initiation by The Guru

Divine Life Society Publication: Commentary on the Panchadasi – Chapter 7 Triptidipa Prakaranam by Swami Krishnananda

In the Upanishads there are two types of description of reality. One definition is called avantara vakya and another is called mahavakya.  Avantara vakya is the statement which merely tells us that something exists. It will not tell us where it is. Brahman exists: asti brahma.

Existence alone was prior to the act of creation – One alone, without a second. This is avantara vakya. And the identity of that existed prior to creation, with our own self is the mahavakya. Its existence merely as such, as an object of our knowledge, is indirect knowledge born of avantara vakya. When it is said that we are inseparable from it, right from eternity, the mahavakya –  the great statement of instruction – has been communicated.

One alone without a second did exist. Therefore, we cannot exist outside it. Therefore, it is understood, it is implied, that we are inseparable from that. This is aparoksa experience, direct knowledge.

There was a Guru called Varuna. He had a son called Bhrigu, who was also a disciple. This is an illustration taken from the Taittiriya Upanishad. “Teach me Brahman,” said the disciple to the Guru. “That from which everything comes, that in which everything subsists, that to which everything returns is Brahman. Meditate on this,” was the instruction. After meditating, the disciple went to the Guru again, “Teach me Brahman.” “Contemplate this physical sheath as Brahman.” He meditated, and went again, “Please teach me Brahman.” “Contemplate the vital sheath as Brahman.” He meditated on that, and went again and said, “Please teach me Brahman.” “Contemplate the mental sheath as Brahman.” He meditated thus, and went again to the Guru and said, “Please teach me Brahman.”

 Why did he go again and again? There was some defect in the instruction and also in the experience thereby – that is to say, in considering physical, vital, or mental sheaths as Brahman. Again the disciple went, “Please teach me Brahman.” “Meditate on the intellectual sheath as Brahman.” He again meditated on that, and went again to the Guru and said, “Teach me Brahman.” “Meditate on the bliss of Brahman.” After that he did not go again. When bliss has been experienced, why should we go to the Guru afterwards? The Guru is rejected because bliss is a greater Guru than the Guru who brought us the bliss.

In the beginning, it was only a definition by way of an indirect instruction. Brahman is that which is the cause, sustenance and the end of all things, and it is that which is pervading the physical body, that which pervades the vital, mental, intellectual sheaths, that which is the ultimate bliss that we experience in the state of deep sleep. Having consciously entered into that sleep, if we can be conscious that we are sleeping, we are in direct contact with Brahman. As we cannot be conscious that we are sleeping, that contact is not possible. We come back in the same way as we went into it.

The Guru Varuna did not directly tell Bhrigu what Brahman was. He wanted the disciple to work his own way, by his personal effort, and so he only lead him gradationally, stage by stage, through the levels of experience, right from the conceptual idealisation of God (Brahman) as that which exists as the volition, the sustenance, and the end of all things, that which is in the physical and other sheaths, that which is the ultimate bliss.

Bliss in an indication of Brahman; it is not Brahman itself. The bliss of the causal sheath which the disciple experienced is an indication of Brahman's bliss. It is not Brahman itself. That is to say, when we enter the state of deep sleep, we are not experiencing Brahman, though maybe, theoretically, it may be equal to our landing ourselves in Brahman.

If our plane suddenly requires fuel it lands somewhere, at some airport, and we do not even know which country it is, whose airport it is. If we do not even know where we have landed, and simply know that we have landed, that is something like an indirect jumping into the Brahman state. But actually, landing in sleep – that blissful experience of the condition of sleep – is not Brahman experience because we wake up from sleep into the mortal experience of the physical existence. If we had really gone to Brahman, we would not have woken up.

Therefore, the causal experience of Brahman is only an indication and not a direct experience. This experience has been undergone gradually through the physical, vital, and other sheaths. It is a final indicator of Brahman's existence. It is a signpost which tells us that Brahman is appearing, but Brahman has not yet appeared.

The Taittiriya Upanishad says satyam jñānam anantaṁ brahma: Truth, Knowledge, Infinity is Brahman. This is another way of saying sarvaṁ khalvidaṁ brahma: God is Brahman. If all is Brahman, what does it matter to us? It matters very much because we are not outside it. After having being told that Brahman is Truth, Knowledge, Infinity, we are instructed into a further reality of the fact of our being non-separate from that Brahman which is Truth, Knowledge, Infinity. This is how gradual instruction is imparted by the Guru to the disciple in the process of what is known as initiation.

The graduated technique adopted by Gurus in teaching disciples varies from person to person, from individual to individual, and from one state of evolution to another state of evolution. And this case of Varuna teaching Bhrigu to pass through all these stages of Brahman being immanent in the five sheaths, and experiencing the final bliss of Brahman as it is manifest in the state of sleep, is one category of graduated instruction by the Guru to the disciple.

Excerpts from:

Initiation by Guru - Commentary on the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?

If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org