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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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The Ánanda Vacanámrtam (“Blissful Discourses”) series assembles all the known General Darshan discourses given by Márga Guru Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti. General Darshan (GD) speeches, or discourses, were those given to Ananda Marga members, often as a part of the daily routine, in whatever locality Márga Guru happened to be staying in at the time. Normally briefer and lighter in tone (though no less profound in their fundamental meanings) than the discourses given on the formal occasions of Dharma Mahácakra (DMC), these talks were sometimes delivered in a very intimate way to relatively small groups of Margis.
The Ananda Vacanámrtam series was begun in 1978 with the GD discourses given by the author at that time; it then kept pace with the GD discourses that the author gave over the subsequent six years. Starting with Part 23, the series has included GD speeches given before 1978. Most of the contents of this present volume is from that earlier period.
In this present volume, ten discourses (most of them quite short) have been assigned to the appendix “From the Notebooks of Devotees” in the last pages of the book. These are discourses that were recovered in the form of typed discourse notes; or in the form of typed transcripts of tapes where the original tape was no longer available to be checked. It was thought advisable to locate these discourses separately. Writers who wish to quote from these discourses should attribute the material to the “Ananda Vacanámrtam Part 30 appendix”.
Normally within each Ananda Vacanámrtam the discourses appear in chronological order. Although in this volume the appendix has been separated from the main text, within the main text and within the appendix, respectively, the chronological order has been maintained. Note that an interesting series of discourses given by the author in Patna on the 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 21st of December, 1971, has been included here – but since tape recordings are still available only for the first four of these discourses, the last two have been assigned to the appendix.
Under our normal procedures the discourse “The Dialogues of Shiva and Párvatii – 5” would have been published together with the other 1967 “Dialogues of Shiva and Párvatii” in Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 23; but this dialogue had not been recovered at the time that that book was published. (Though this dialogue has been numbered “5”, since four had already been published and numbered, it was not actually the last of the series. It may have been third.)
Similarly, “Beware of Dogma” would normally have been published together with the author’s other 1979 Istanbul discourses in Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 14. It was not available at the time that book was published, however, so it has been included here.
To assist researchers, it is our policy to indicate here – in addition to the original language of each speech, the date and place, by whom it was translated, and where, if other than in this book, it was originally published – whether or not a tape of the speech is in existence. At the time of this printing, however, not all the cataloguing of tapes has been finished. Further information as to tapes will be given in future printings.
In the cases of some of the discourses published here, no written record was found of the language in which the discourse was given; but if the language could be clearly inferred from the location and other circumstances of the discourse, we have cited that language.
Footnotes by the editors have all been signed “–Eds.” Unsigned footnotes are those of the author.
Square brackets [ ] in the text are used to indicate translations by the editors or other editorial insertions. Round brackets ( ) indicate a word or words originally given by the author.
The author used a certain shorthand for explaining the etymologies of words. Under this system, a minus sign (–) follows a prefix, and a plus sign (+) precedes a suffix. Thus ava – tr + ghaiṋ = avatára can be read, “the root tr prefixed by ava and suffixed by ghaiṋ becomes avatára.”
“Dagdhabiija”. Discourse in Hindi. First English publication in Bodhi Kalpa, Oct. 1968. English re-editing by Ácárya Acyutánanda Avadhúta.
“The Dialogues of Shiva and Párvatii – 5”. Discourse in Hindi. First English publication in Prout, Aug. 19, 1967. Original date and place not identified in Prout. English re-editing by Ácárya Acyutánanda Avadhúta.
“Self-Transcendence”. First English publication in a magazine (Supreme Expression I noted: “This book is compiled from articles… previously printed in the magazines: Cosmic Society, Bodhi Kalpa, Education and Culture and others”). Second English publication in Supreme Expression I, 1978. Original language, date and place not identified in Supreme Expression I. English re-editing by Ácárya Acyutánanda Avadhúta.
“The Subtlest Propensity”. Discourse in English. Tape.
“Macropsychic Conation”. Discourse in English. Tape.
“Ascribe Brahma-hood to All”. Discourse in English. Tape.
“The Sound of God”. Discourse in English. Tape.
“Twice Born”. Discourse in English. Tape. Source of first sentence (not on tape): early typed transcript of tape.
“The Four Kinds of Service”. Discourse in English. Tape.
“Hara’s Seven Secrets”. Discourse in Hindi. First English publication as “Bábá’s Morning General Darshan at Bombay” in Prajiṋá Bháratii. English re-editing by Ácárya Acyutánanda Avadhúta.
“Self-Realization and Service to Humanity”. Discourse in Hindi. First English publication as “Self-Liberation and Service to Humanity” in Prajiṋá Bháratii. English re-editing by Ácárya Acyutánanda Avadhúta.
“Human Expressions and Human Movements”. Discourse in English. Original English publication as “Human Expression” in Bábá in Fiesch, 1979.
“Parama Puruśa within Everyone”. Discourse in English. Tape.
“Ideological Flow and the Eight-Fold Path”. Discourse in English. Tape.
“Beware of Dogma”. Discourse in English. Original English publication in Prajiṋá Bháratii, Jan.-Feb. 1980. Second English publication in Prout in a Nutshell Part 9, 1987.
“Samatábháva”. First English publication in Supreme Guide. Original language, date and place not identified in Supreme Guide. English re-editing by Ácárya Acyutánanda Avadhúta.
“The Most Dignified Section of Human Society”. Discourse in English. Original publication in English in Trishula, Vol. 2 No. 12, Feb. 1980.
“Longings of Microcosms”. Discourse in Hindi. First English publication as “Longings of Microcosms and Grace of the Supreme Being” in a magazine. The magazine mentioned, “Notes from Discourse of Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti”. English re-editing by Ácárya Acyutánanda Avadhúta.
“The Phases of Human Approach”. First English publication as “Communication and Human Approach” in a magazine. Original language, date and place not identified in the magazine. English re-editing by Ácárya Acyutánanda Avadhúta.
Appendix: From the Notebooks of Devotees
“Principles and Practice of Philosophy and Cult”. Discourse in English. Sources: typed notes and “My Beloved Bábá” Philippines booklet. The typed notes mention, “Substance of Bábá’s Discourse. Evening 24-5-69”. (The typed notes date this discourse and the following one as “24-5-69” and “26-5-69” respectively, but a tape of three General Darshans and a DMC in Manila gives the dates of the three GD’s as 21 April, 22 April and 23 April 69. The only other set of notes available in the same typing as that of this discourse [and the next] is of a DMC in Ranchi on “25-5-69”, a date and place corroborated by two GD’s in Ranchi on 23 May 69 and one on 24 May 69. That the author toured the Philippines in April only is also corroborated by evidence regarding the author’s tour from Indian magazines. So we have dated this discourse and the following one as April, not May, 1969. The taped GD’s from Manila and the GD’s from Ranchi may all be found in Ánanda Vacanámrtam 23.)
“Surrender”. Discourse in English. Sources: typed notes and “My Beloved Bábá” Philippines booklet. The typed notes mention, “Departing Talk on 26-5-69. Summary”. (Regarding the date, however, see above entry.)
“June-July 1970”. Discourses in English. Sources: typed notes. A handwritten note added after the typing of the second discourse indicates that the typing was done from earlier handwriting, and that as regards the second paragraph of the second discourse, that earlier handwriting was not clear.
“You Live According to God’s Desire”. Discourse in English. Source: typed notes.
“The True Devotee”. Discourse in Hindi. Source: typed notes. The typed notes mention, “Paraphrased from a translation of Bábá’s darshan by Amogha Siddhi”. English re-editing by Ácárya Acyutánanda Avadhúta.
“One and Zero”. Discourse in English. Source: typed notes. The typed notes mention, “Paraphrased (from the English darshan) by Amogha Siddhi”.
“He Is Everywhere”. Discourse in English. Original English publication in a magazine (Supreme Expression I noted: “This book is compiled from articles… previously printed in the magazines: Cosmic Society, Bodhi Kalpa, Education and Culture and others”). Second English publication as “Lord’s Grace” in Supreme Expression I, 1978. Other source: Transcript of tape, typed by Shrii Vásudeva.
“Occult Powers or Parama Puruśa?” Discourse in English. Source: Transcript of tape, typed by Shrii Vásudeva.
“Bio-Psycho-Spiritual System of Kiirtana”. Discourse in English. Source: typed notes.
“Mysticism”. Source: typed notes. Original language not identified in the typed notes.
Note that besides the previous occasions of publication mentioned above for different discourses, the discourses “Dagdhabiija”, “The Sound of God”, “Surrender”, “The True Devotee”, “One and Zero” and “Occult Powers or Parama Puruśa” also appeared in Bábá’s Grace, 1973. “Self-Transcendence” also appeared there, as “God”; “You Live According to God’s Desire” as “Live According to God’s Desire”; and part of “He Is Everywhere” as “The Lord’s Palms”.
We particularly wish to thank Ácárya Prańavátmakánanda Avadhúta, who went to much trouble to collect Márga Guru’s GD discourses from old magazines and newspapers, and from the notebooks of different sádhakas; Shrii Giri Dhara and Shrii Vinaya of New York Sector, and Táttvika Dhanjoo Ghista of Delhi Sector, who sent us discourses that they had collected in similar form; and Avadhútiká Ánanda Rucirá Ácáryá, who provided great assistance in the editing.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Yávanna kśiiyate karma shubhaiṋcáshubhameva ca;
Távanna jáyate mokśa nrńáḿ kalpashataerapi.
Yathá laohamayaerpáshaeh páshaeh svarńamayaerapi;
Tathá baddho bhavet jiivo karmábhiishcáshubhaehshubhaeh.
–Tantra
[Unless one’s good or bad saḿskáras (mental reactive momenta) become completely exhausted, one cannot attain mokśa (non-qualified liberation) even in crores of kalpas (aeons). Just as chains, whether of iron or gold, are still chains, so people bound by saḿskáras, whether good or bad, are nevertheless bound.]
Is the misery less even if one is bound with chains made of gold? No, bondage is bondage, be [the chains] made of gold or iron. The bondage of satkarma [good actions] is that of gold, and that of asatkarma [bad actions], iron. Either of them is to be broken off. One has to refrain from bad actions so that the chains of iron might not be forged; and good actions are to be effected, but what one has to do is to offer the chains made of gold at the feet of Paramátmá: “I do not desire the fruits of my good actions, O Lord! I offer them to Thee.”
As long as the physical body exists, some actions are bound to be performed. No one can help doing actions. [Respiration] is itself an action. Once I said that even if one does not desire to do any action and sleeps, then that sleep, too, is an action. Actions must be performed – not bad actions, but good ones, which too are to be offered to Him.
Nábhuktaḿ kśiiyate karma kalpakot́ishataerapi;
Avashyameva bhoktavyaḿ krtaḿ karma shubháshubham.
–Tantra
[Even after crores of kalpas, saḿskáras do not become exhausted. The requitals of all actions, good or bad, must be undergone: there is no exception.]
“Even after crores of kalpas [aeons] the reactions of actions are not exhausted. This continues to be so as long as the reactions have not been experienced.” How will the reactions of the actions be exhausted? Karmabhogena kśiiyate – “When the reactions are experienced, then only are they exhausted.” Avashyameva bhoktavyaḿ krtaḿ karmashubhá shubham – “one has performed good actions, so their fruits are to be enjoyed; so also is it with bad actions.” Hence one has to be cautious while performing actions. After that, repentance will fetch no benefit.
Avashyameva bhoktavyaḿ krtaḿ karmashubhá shubham. Now the question arises whether the reactions will be just [equal] to the actions, or less, or more. Equal and opposite reaction is [the rule], but then, whether the enjoyment of the reaction of actions is purely psychic or physico-psychic is to be seen. Where the action is purely mental, the reaction will be just [equal] to that. But if the action is physico-psychic, the question is, what will be the reaction? Still one thing is there, that if the mind is not affected by the physico-psychic action, nothing happens.(1) But [usually] when the reaction is physico-psychic, it has more effect than the action performed.
If it is purely psychic, the reaction will be just equal to it. [But] the reaction of the physico-psychic action does not affect the mind cent per cent. A person enjoys [psychic] reactions just [equal] to the actions performed. If there be some quantity of the reaction of physico-psychic action [that affects the body], in that case, the reaction will be much more than the action performed. The mind will be affected just according to the psychic action – that is the case with psychic actions. [But] if the action is physico-psychic, some of the reactions [affect] the mind, some [do] not. That which affects the mind is a psychic reaction, that which does not is physical. Among these reactions, the one that is in the pure physical sphere does not affect the mind. The pure psychic coupled with the [physical] of a physico-psychic reaction add up to produce a greater reaction. So the quantity of reaction in case of a physico-psychic action becomes much greater. Hence one should be careful.
There are so many grades of sádhaka [spiritual practitioner]. Some say, “O Paramátmá, please get my saḿskáras exhausted as soon as possible. Give to me whatever is there.” [But] some say, “I am ready to bear the fruits of my own [actions] and I am also ready to bear the saḿskáras of others.” There are varieties of feeling. Some want to carry the burdens of others so that others might not be in trouble. Sádhakas are at different stages, and their feelings are just according to their stages. While doing sádhaná, a sádhaka reaches a stage where púrńa bhakti [cent per cent devotion] is aroused for Paramátmá. Then one remains unassailed even if a cyclone of misery attacks him or her. One feels maximum torture in the mind, but he or she little cares for it, taking it to be the benediction of Paramátmá Himself. Torture is there but he or she derives bliss from it. The sádhaka of that stage is called dagdhabiija [burnt seed]. A dagdhabiija comes within the range of psychic directly.
Biija means “seed”. Wherever a seed is sown, it [sprouts into] a plant; but where the seed is burnt, a plant is not produced. A sádhaka becomes dagdhabiija when he or she has no more pain or pleasure of his or her own. One who has surrendered in toto and has not kept in hand even a single paisa of it, is alone dagdhabiija. All carry their own burdens, but if a dagdhabiija sádhaka so desires, he or she can carry the burdens of others also. And those who want to carry the burden of others do lessen the burden of Paramátmá indirectly. You should remember this.
Do not remain worried about your individual problems at all. Be prepared to carry your own burden and be prepared also to carry the burdens of others. Then alone are you brave. Be dagdhabiija. Everyone has his or her own individual problems. Do not try to pass them on to others. On the contrary, bear the burdens of others. No one is your enemy. Be ready to bear the burdens of others.
Footnotes
(1) If the doer of the action does not think of himself/herself as the doer, but thinks of the Supreme as the doer, the mind is not affected. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Párvatii asked Shiva, “Who has the right to attain salvation?” Sadáshiva replied,
Átmajiṋánamidaḿ Devi paraḿ mokśaeka sádhanam;
Sukrtaermánavo bhútvá jiṋániicenmokśamápnuyát.
[Self-knowledge is the greatest means to attain salvation. People are born as human beings due to their past good saḿskáras, but to attain non-qualified liberation, salvation, they will have to attain self-knowledge.]
Salvation is nothing but the realization of the self. What is self-realization? You know, for instance, a flower. This is your knowledge about it. Átmajiṋána [self-knowledge] is not this type of knowledge.(1)
There are three [factors] in your effort to know a flower – the knower, the known, and the link connecting the subject and the object. But here [in the effort to know oneself] the knower, the known, and the knowledge are one. You know yourself, so knower and known are the same thing. And there does not arise any question of link, for the entity here is not dual. If the two banks of a river become one there will be no problem of connecting them.
Átmajiṋána is this unification where duality ceases to exist. Salvation, therefore, is ekarasátmaka [having the nature of a single flow]. This implies the vision of Brahma in every mundane or supramundane objectivity. Self-realization is mokśa [non-qualified liberation, salvation]. Only [a person who has performed] sukrti [good deeds] has got the right to achieve salvation. When one elevates oneself by sukrti, that person becomes fit to attain mokśa. Sukrtaermánavo bhútvá [“people are born as human beings due to their good saḿskáras (formed out of their past good deeds)”].
In laokik Sanskrit su means “good” and krta connotes “that which has been done”. But the term has a different connotation in Vedic Sanskrit. There su means sva, that is, “own”. When jiivas attain human status, [then] owing to their own actions they get the right to achieve salvation.
Rtaḿ pivantao svakrtasya loke…
–Yajurveda
[Human beings undergoing the reactions of their own actions…]
Here rtam connotes the “result of the action”.
Who is a mánava [human being]? What is svakrta? What makes the difference between a human and an animal is a particular intellectual standard. [As for] beings below that standard, their spirit is personal and the medium impersonal. Animals and inanimate objects progress through the impersonal medium. They get their urges from the Cosmological order. They only progress and never retard. Animals and inanimate objects never degenerate; they always march ahead on the path of evolution.
But human beings have a particular intellectual standard. By properly utilizing it they can push themselves upward, and by misutilizing it they can throw themselves into the dark cave of degradation. Thus a human can progress by properly utilizing his or her intellect, and degrade by abusing it. That is why one should be very careful while applying one’s intellect. The created being through whose personal medium the impersonal entity manifests himself and actuates the entity [svakrta] is called the human being.
Footnotes
(1) Sentence that may have been poorly transcribed or translated in the original newspaper publication of this discourse omitted here. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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To a person of average intelligence, water and ice are two different entities, but one who knows a little of the truth knows that ice is only a crudified form of water. Similarly, where the average person sees a big difference between a pot and the potter, the knower of Brahma sees only oneness between them. Are the world and Brahma two different entities, or are they indivisible? Is the one true, and the other false? Is the difference that appears between the two the truth, or illusion? Such questions or ways of thinking never arise in the mind of a person with Cosmic outlook.
Whether the world and Brahma are two entities, or the one is not different from the other – such thoughts are wrong in themselves. The knower of Brahma feels that the world is indeed His own manifestation; he knows that all is He. Do you know how that difference looks from the Cosmic perspective? Not any bigger than the difference between “person” and “human being”, between “sea” and “ocean”. From a sádhaka’s [spiritual aspirant’s] standpoint the distinction does not exist.
Brahma is the lord of the evolved objects; He is the controller of every one of them. This very Lord moves in the womb as the [foetus] and when it is born, the event, in fact, should be called the birth of Brahma, because all creations are but manifestations of Brahma Himself.
There is one moon, but its reflections, falling in countless puddles of water, appear as countless moons. No new moon is born. The same moon is being reflected or is taking birth in many receptacles. Similarly the one and the same Brahma is being manifested as limitless unit entities in countless mental receptacles.
The union of a sádhaka with Brahma has been expressed in an excellent [metaphor]. A river gives up its name and identity and completely merges in the sea; thereafter it cannot maintain its own existence, it is the sea. Similarly, a sádhaka, after merging himself or herself in Brahma, can no longer think of himself or herself except as Brahma. Seeing the Ganges River we can tell that it is the water of the Ganges. We can tell the water of the Yamuna River, or the water of the Sarasvati River. But once they merge in the sea, we cannot separate them, nor can we distinguish the one from the other. They all have lost their respective name-entities in the entity of the sea.
When a knower of Truth merges in the Supreme Being, his or her petty sense of existence is lost, and, attaining unity with the Supreme Entity, the person becomes supreme himself or herself. Spiritual practice is the means for the expansion of the soul, not for its annihilation; so samádhi does not mean suicide but self-transcendence. One who has known Brahma becomes Brahma Itself, for the unit entity takes on the very form of its object of ideation. One who has Brahma as his or her object of ideation becomes Brahma Itself.
If a salt doll goes to fathom the sea, it will certainly melt and become the sea itself. Similarly, if the knower of Brahma goes to fathom Brahma, he or she merges in the sea of Brahma and becomes Brahma Itself. Be constantly absorbed in the thought of Brahma and you too will become Brahma.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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In the shástras [scriptures] it is once said,
Manaeva manuśyáńáḿ kárańaḿ bandhamokśayoh;
Bandhastu viśayásaungii mukto nirviśayaḿ tathá.
[The mind is the cause of both the bondage and the liberation of human beings. One in bondage craves for material objects, but a liberated soul does not.]
“This human mind is a peculiar entity. It is the cause of all our sorrows and predicaments, and it is the cause of our supreme bliss. It is the cause of bondage, and it is the cause of liberation.” Now this mind, working within human framework, requires some pabulum for its maintenance. In the human mind there are fifty such pabula. And these are the human propensities, vrttis.
The existence of these propensities or pabula is essential for maintaining the mind, the mental [stuff]. Because the mind’s position is just between spirit and matter, and that’s why it has been said that the mind is a tat́asthá shakti. Tat́a means, you know, the line where the water touches the land; that point is called tat́a. If you move towards the water, the next moment where will you be? Underwater. Or if you go upwards, you will reach the dry land. Similarly, if the mind moves upwards, it will be transmuted into spirit; and if it goes towards matter it will be metamorphosed into matter, it will become jad́a. So it has a connection both with matter and with spirit.
The mind’s connection, the mind’s ties, with matter are represented by forty-nine propensities, and the mind’s connection with the spirit is represented by one propensity. Those forty-nine propensities are mundane propensities, and they can function only with the help of interior or exterior organs. And the singular propensity that connects the mind with the spirit is paráshakti. It is beyond the campus of the organs.
If a person is always encouraging those forty-nine propensities, naturally from human being he or she will be converted into animal, and from animal into crude matter. What is the spiritual aspirant to do? He or she is to encourage that singular entity, that paráshakti; and that paráshakti will convert his or her mind into spirit. When that person becomes one with the Lord, then what happens? He or she becomes “mindless”, because his or her mental stamina is converted into intuitional stamina.
Now the question is whether such a thing is possible for a bad person or a depraved person. You know, the majority – I won’t say the majority, but a good percentage amongst the general public – think, “We are depraved persons, we are ordinary persons; is it possible for us to transmute our mind into spirit? No, no, that is for mahátmás [elevated souls], not for us.” They think like this.
But such a mode of thinking is defective, because all these fifty propensities are present in each and every human mind, in each and every microcosm. In a mahátmá those fifty propensities are there; in a durátmá [wicked person] also those fifty propensities are there. So by regular practice, by implicit faith, and by zealous pursuit, an ordinary man, a depraved person, may also attain that supreme stance. It is not at all an impossibility. One is to withdraw one’s mind from baser propensities and guide the mind towards that singular propensity, paráshakti. Psychologically, you know, mental repression and mental suppression both are defective.
You shouldn’t check the flow. You may check the flow to check the flood, but you are to divert that water through different canals. Here also you are to check the flow of your baser propensities and divert it unto that singular propensity, towards the Supreme Self. Sa no buddhya shubhayá saḿyunaktu [“Let Him connect our minds with righteousness”]. The mind is moving towards so many ashubha [unrighteous] activities. Withdraw those activities and guide it towards the singular shubha [righteous] Entity.
So this mind is the cause of bondage if those forty-nine propensities are encouraged. This mind is the cause of liberation if that singular propensity is encouraged. In the shástra it has been said,
Api cet sudurácáro bhajate mámananyabhák;
So’pi pápavinirmuktah mucyate bhavabandhanát.
“If even a sudurácárii – ” – you know, durácárii means “depraved person”, “encouraging avidyá shakti”. And sudurácárii – one who is treated as a durácárii even in the society of durácáriis is a sudurácárii. Api cet sudurácáro bhajate mámananyabhák – “If even a very, very de[praved] person – ” – bhajate mámananyabhák – “ideates on me” – ananyabhák – “withdrawing his or her mind from all other, baser, propensities” – “If even a bad person, a brute in animal structure, ideates on me by withdrawing his or her mind from all other baser propensities (that is, from all those forty-nine propensities) – ” –
What are those forty-nine propensities, do you know?
The terranean plexus, or múládhára cakra:(1)
The fluidal plexus, or svádhiśt́hána cakra:
The igneous plexus, or mańipura cakra:
The anáhata cakra:
The vishuddha cakra:
The lunar plexus, or ájiṋá cakra:
These are the forty-nine. And the last one [number 2 of the ájiṋá cakra], that is, the singular subtle propensity, is pará [spiritual knowledge].
So’pi pápavinirmukto – “he or she is freed from pápa. I liberate that person, I free that person from the bondage of pápa.” And what is pápa? Vyásadeva said,
Aśt́ádashapuráńeśu Vyásasya vacanadvayam;
Paropakárah puńyáya pápáya parapiidanam.
[Out of the eighteen Puranas, two sayings of Vyása are of the essence: puńya (virtue) means doing good to others, and pápa (sin) means doing harm to others.]
“If you go against the collective interest you are committing some pápa, and if you encourage the collective interest you are doing some puńya.” Paropakárah puńyáya pápáya parapiidanaḿ.
So’pi pápavinirmuktah – “this pápa is the worst bondage; I liberate a person from the bondage of pápa.”
Mucyate bhavabandhanát – “and he or she is liberated from all other mundane bondages, that is, he or she attains that supreme beatitude.”
So you are all sádhakas, you must remember that you are to discourage those forty-nine propensities and you are to encourage that subtlest propensity. To encourage that subtlest propensity is your ádhyátmá sádhaná [spiritual sádhaná].
Footnotes
(1) Headings regarding the cakras added by us from information given by the author elsewhere. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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The fundamental stuff is the Supreme Cognition. And within the scope of this Supreme Cognition there function three operative principles. [Now, the conation] is a resultant of the never-ending fight of three belligerent principles functioning within the triangle of forces. And you know, regarding these three operative principles, really speaking they are not three principles, they are the same principle, but according to their wavelengths we say that this one, or this particular flow, or this particular vibration, is the sentient principle; and that one is the mutative principle; and the crudest one is the static principle. In the realm of the unmanifest these three forces are fighting with one another, and when they form the triangle, the first triangle of the unmanifest universe, they try to influence the other; and as a result of this mutual fight, these belligerent forces, what do they do? The resultant of that fight comes out from one of the vertices, and we should say that that vertex is the fundamental point of fundamental positivity – that it is the fundamental positivity – because from this point starts the creation. And from this point starts His conation.
And this phase of creation, which is commonly known as the extroversial force in philosophy – there are three portions, three phases – and the first portion, when it is just coming out from the vertex, is the basic principle. Theoretically it [exists], but practically it cannot be established. In the next phase it moves like a straight line. This first point is called bindu in Tantra.
And then it moves like a straight line. Here something has been created. Spirit is slowly being transmuted, is being metamorphosed, into abstract. Cognition is being transmuted into abstract. Átmá is being transmuted into mánasa. It is called náda in Tantra. Bindu, then náda. The basic principle and the primordial principle.
And after that, as a result of internal clash and cohesion, that náda becomes, is converted into, kalá. Curvatures are created within its body. It is called kalá. Whatever we see, whatever we feel, whatever we realize, comes within the scope of this kalá. That is, this universe is a creation of vibrations of different curvatures. It is a mesh of waves of different lengths. And what are these waves? What is this vibrational principle? It is a conative expression of the Supreme Self. (The subject of discourse is “macropsychic conation”.) So as a result of this macropsychic conation we get this universe. We get this quinquelemental world. We get these microcosms.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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The life of all other [beings] is for material enjoyment, but human life is for higher pursuits, for something subtle, something higher, something more elevated. There are certain propensities which are common both for human beings and animals, but the old idea of logicians that the human is a rational [animal] is not supported by us. We say the human is not a rational animal. If we say the human is a rational animal, then the human comes within the animal category. Yes, the human is a living being, but the human is not an animal.
We say human life is an ideological flow. The ideological flow is human, it is human life; and where there is no ideological flow it is an animal. But whatever a person is to do – What is a person to do? A person is to do only spiritual practice, only sádhaná. But to maintain the body that person requires food, requires dress, requires medical treatment, requires education, requires so many things; and these so many things are worldly duties. But when engaged in worldly duties naturally one gets detached from one’s spiritual duty. And that’s why madhuvidyá [the practice of remembering that everything is Brahma] says that whenever one is to do any worldly work, one is to – what? Ascribe Brahma-hood, ascribe Náráyańa-hood, to that worldly duty. So while doing worldly duties, attending to worldly duties, one is not wasting one’s time, one is doing spiritual practice. Because spirituality has been imposed on, has been ascribed to, that worldly work. Do you follow?
Now you know there is a popular mantra –
Pitrpuruśebhyo namah rśidevebhyo namah.
Brahmárpańaḿ Brahmahavir Brahmágnao Brahmańáhutam;
Brahmaeva tena gantavyaḿ Brahmakarma samádhiná.
[Salutations to the ancestors, salutations to the god-like rśis.
The act of offering is Brahma; that which is offered is Brahma;
the one to whom the offering is made is Brahma; and the person
making the offering is Brahma.
One will merge in Brahma after completing the duty assigned to
him/her by Brahma.]
You should know its meaning. It has closest proximity to this madhuvidyá, that is, this ascription of Brahma-hood to worldly work.
First thing is, what? Pitrpuruśebhyo namah. Pitrpuruśebhyo namah. You are in this world, but before you so many human beings came. The Australopithecus was an old animal which was the forefather of modern humans, and was in this world about ten lakhs of years ago. [One million years ago.] Some time in the Pliocene Age. ([Before that were] the Miocene, the Oligocene, the Mesozoic… This is the Cenozoic Age going on now on this earth, as per archaeology.) Now you know, so many human beings came, and you are descendants of those old human beings who came here and who left this world long ago. You are their descendants. So, Pitrpuruśebhyo namah. Pitrpuruśebhyo namah. To all our forefathers who came into this world and left this world. So many people, so many millions of people, came during the last ten lakh years. So, Pitrpuruśebhyo namah. “I do namah to those people,” because I am a continuity of those people in the flow of the human race.
And rśidevebhyonamah. During this long period so many things were invented by so many great people. Great people are known as rśis. The person who invented penicillin is a rśi; the one who invented the aeroplane is a rśi; the motorcar, a rśi; television, a rśi. So many rśis came, and those who invented bullock carts, they were also rśis. In that dark age the person who invented the bullock cart was also a rśi. So many rśis came, and in their age they were glittering personalities. We may or may not recognize them in this second half of the twentieth century, but in their ages they were glittering personalities. So, rśidevebhyo namah – “I also do namah to those rśis who invented so many things.” And the collection of their inventions is modern human civilization.
The person who first started this knitting. Now you are using sweaters. Rśidevebhyo…
Brahmárpańaḿ. Now I am offering something for Brahma. What am I offering? My reverence. My respect. My cordiality. My love. So, Brahmárpańaḿ. The good action of offering. Offering is an action. Arpańa – offering is called arpańa in Sanskrit. Now this process of offering, this action, is what? It is Brahma. That is, I have ascribed Brahma-hood to this action of offering even. Do you follow? Brahma-hood has been ascribed to this verb also. What verb? – the offering. I am offering something. So, Brahmárpańaḿ. “The offering is Brahma,” because Brahma-hood has been ascribed to it. Brahmárpańaḿ.
Brahmahavih – “and the object that I am offering is also Brahma.” Brahmahavih means – “I am offering,” this verb, this action of offering,(1) is Brahma – and now the object of offering is Brahma. “What is being offered, this stick, is also Brahma” – Brahmahavih.
And to whom it is being offered – Brahmágnao. That [person] who is receiving this offering. “That third party is also Brahma” – Brahmágnao.
Brahmańáhutam – “and the personality, the one who is offering, is also Brahma.” Brahma-hood has been ascribed to that person also.
Offering; offered; to whom offered; offerer, offering personality – that person is also Brahma.
And Brahmaeva tena gantavyaḿ. The person who is offering – that person’s goal, or destination, is also Brahma. That is, Brahma is the goal for this offering entity. And when will that person merge into Brahma, become one with Brahma? The offering entity’s goal is Brahma; when will the offering entity become Brahma? The offering entity is here in this world to do the work of Brahma – “And after completing this work of Brahma that person will become one with Brahma.”
Brahmaeva tena gantavyaḿ means Brahma is the goal, the goal of the offering entity. And when will that person go? Brahmakarma samádhiná – “after he or she completes the work allotted to him or her by Brahma.”
Footnotes
(1) Referring back to Brahmárpańaḿ. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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In the beginning, there was sound, and the sound was with God, and the sound was God. You know, amongst different expressions, the expression of sound is the subtlest, subtler even than light, and that is why the karńendriya, the ear, is treated as the subtlest organ. Now, these acoustic expressions are of two kinds: one is divine, or spiritual, acoustic expression, and the other is physical acoustic expression. The sound you hear is physical acoustic expression, and similarly there is spiritual acoustic expression in the divine realm, in the spiritual campus. But in the case of the Non-Attributional Entity, in the case of Nirguńa Brahma, there is no expression, because Nirguńa means “where there has been no expression”. But in the case of Saguńa [Saguńa Brahma, the Attributional Entity] and even starting from Puruśottama [the Nucleus Consciousness], there is expression. And that expression, till it reaches the physical sphere, is spiritual acoustic expression, spiritual sound.
You know, whenever you think something, you create mental sound. What is thinking? Thinking is mentally speaking. Is it not a fact? You are thinking, “Oh, my visa will expire on such-and-such day.” Actually you are speaking mentally. Mmmm. And when you speak physically, others can also hear; when you speak mentally, others may or may not hear. [Much laughter among the audience.]
Now, one may catch this physical sound according to the capacity of one’s acoustic organs, one’s ears. You cannot catch very short or very long sounds. Similarly, in the inner sphere there are several stages, several strata, several phases; and when the inner senses develop by dint of sádhaná, one will hear that divine sound, that inner sound. It is known as the sound of silence. The what? The sound of silence. And it is what is known as oṋḿkára in Sanskrit – prańava or oṋḿkára.
When those inner senses develop, then in the first phase sádhakas [spiritual aspirants] can hear the sound, that inner sound, that inner voice, that divine sound. In the first phase it is like the sound of crickets. [Imitates the sound.]
You know, the cricket is an insect that creates a pauseless sound [imitates] in the fog. You have seen [it in] open fields, particularly in the rainy season. Mmmm… one will hear a cricket sound.
Then in the next phase, as if somebody is dancing with ghuṋghur [ankle bells]. (You know, ghuṋghur – you use it during the táńd́ava dance. In Sanskrit it is called nupur.) Next you will hear the sound of flutes – as if somebody is playing a flute. Then the sound of the ocean, you know? A particular sound is created by the sea. And then, in the fifth phase, taḿ, taḿ, just like bells, the sound of bells. And finally, the sound is just like ooṋṋṋ – the oṋḿkára in pure form. And after that there remains no sound, because after that there ends the realm, the scope, of Saguńa. After that there is the scope of Nirguńa. In the realm of Nirguńa there cannot be any sound, because there cannot be any expression. Not even divine expression, not even supra-psychic expression.
By dint of sádhaná, in the last phase you will hear the sound, the oṋḿkára – ooṋṋṋ. You will hear that sound. It is known as the oṋḿkára or prańava. In the Vedas it has been said, Prańavátmakaḿ Brahma [“Brahma is of the same nature as prańava”]. When one can hear that prańava, in the next phase one will come in contact with Nirguńa Brahma. That’s why prańava is called Prańavátmakaḿ Brahma. Prá – nu + al = prańava. Prańava means that entity that helps the sádhaka to come in contact with Parama Puruśa. In Sanskrit another name for prańava is Shabda Brahma – Brahma expressed as shabda. Shabda means sound. So a day will come when this prańava will become a crude reality for you. Now, for some of you, prańava is in dreamland [much laughter], [but actually] it is a crude reality.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Janmaná jáyate shúdrah saḿskárát dvija ucyate;
Veda pát́hát bhavet viprah Brahma jánáti bráhmańah.
[By birth everybody is a shúdra, i.e., with an animal-like mentality. Going through a [[renewal]], the person becomes a dvija, i.e., expresses the desire to become human. By studying scriptures, a person next becomes a vipra, an intellectual. And finally, when the person realizes Brahma (through psycho-spiritual initiation), he or she becomes a bráhmańa.]
You know about vipra, kśatriya, vaeshya and shúdra. Vipra means an intellectual who helps the society with the help of his or her intellect, who teaches others, guides others; he or she is a vipra. A kśatriya protects the society, protects the weak. How? With his or her valour, with his or her strength. A kśatriya utilizes his or her strength and courage in protecting the society. And vaeshya means – ? [to a sádhaka] You – vaeshya means – ?
[Sádhaka replies, “Capitalist.”]
Vaeshya means producer, manufacturer. That is, agriculturists (a farmer is an agriculturist), factory labourers, technicians – they are all vaeshyas. And shúdra – the unskilled labourer, or one who does nothing, or wastes his or her time, or depends on others. They are all shúdras.
Now you see, so far as mental colour is concerned – according to the mental tendency, the mind has colour, and that colour is according to the wavelengths of thoughts. For a vipra it will be whitish, for a kśatriya reddish, for a vaeshya yellowish, and for a shúdra blackish. Black here means not the colour of the skin, not the complexion, you know, but the mental colour. Actually it concerns – what? Mental colours. And one may change one’s mental colour by dint of one’s sádhaná.
There are certain misunderstandings in India regarding these shúdras. Some people used to think that those non-Aryan people – Austrics, Mongoloids, and the Negroid population of India, Austrico-Negroid – that they were the shúdras because of their black skin. No, it’s not a matter of black skin, but of a black mind. The son of an intellectual may be a shúdra if he is mentally black. A person may be a vipra even if he or she is physically black.
Janmaná jáyate shúdrah [“By birth, one is a shúdra”]. A newborn babe just after taking birth is a shúdra. All newborn babes are shúdras, because they do nothing and they depend solely on their parents. So a babe is a shúdra – certainly a shúdra – depending on the mother.
Saḿskárát dvija ucyate [“going through a renewal, the person becomes dvija”] – and after a few years, after five years, when one is initiated, one becomes dvija.
In Sanskrit, dvi means “two” and ja means “born”, so dvija means “twice born”, “born twice”. In Sanskrit the word dvija has several meanings. The actual meaning or derivative meaning is “born twice”. But in the practical field, it has three other meanings.
One meaning is an initiated person – because the first birth was the physical birth, and the second birth was the spiritual birth, during initiation. Such a person is dvija, born twice: First, you are born simply as an animal being. But this second time, as a human being. So unless and until one is initiated one is not, one cannot be, treated as a human being.
The second meaning of dvija is birds or reptiles – the first birth in the form of an egg and the second birth in its proper form – so dvija.
And the third meaning of dvija is “tooth”. It is born twice. So teeth are also dvija.
But don’t be dvija like teeth or birds or snakes. (They are also dvija.) A snake is – what?
[A sádhaka replies, “It sheds its skin.”]
No, first in the form of an egg, and secondly in the form of a snake. Birds are also dvija.
Janmaná jáyate shúdrah – “In the first phase all are shúdras.” Saḿskárát dvija ucyate – “and after one is initiated, one becomes dvija, human.” Not simply a living being, but a human being.
Veda pát́hát bhavet viprah – “and after that, one may become a vaeshya, one may become a kśatriya, or one may become a vipra.” One must be initiated, and after that, according to his or her tendency, he or she may become a vaeshya, a good vaeshya; or a kśatriya, a good kśatriya; or a vipra, a sadvipra [a true vipra]. After initiation, if one becomes an intellectual, one is to be treated as a vipra. Veda páthát bhavet viprah.
And Brahma jánáti bráhmańah – “and after initiation, after becoming dvija, when one knows Brahma, one is a bráhmańa.” The spiritual aspirant who knows Brahma, who has become one with Brahma (Brahmavid Brahmaeva bhavati(1)), is to be treated as a bráhmańa.
Footnotes
(1) “The knower of Brahma will become Brahma.” –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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What should a person do? Life is a mission. I have said that human life is an ideological flow. That is, human life is a mission; life itself is a mission; one’s very existence is a mission. Átmamokśárthaḿ jagaddhitáya ca – “Whatever one is to do one is to do for átmamokśa – for his or her own liberation – and for the elevation of the entire world, elevation of the entire human society.” One is to do both these things: that is, these two things are one’s mission.
Átmamokśárthaḿ. Now you know, everything is moving in this world. It will have to move. And suppose a person says, “No, I won’t move.” Even then, he or she cannot remain stationary, he or she will have to move downwards. So you should try to move upwards, otherwise you will have to move downwards, because nothing in this world is fixed, nothing in this world is stationary; everything is moving, everything moves. If you do not move this way [up], then you will have to move this way [down]. So, Átmamokśárthaḿ – “Whatever one is to do, one is to do for his or her own mokśa.” Mokśa means [non-qualified] liberation.
Then, jagaddhitáya ca. A person is doing everything for his or her own spiritual elevation, own liberation, for complete emancipation. That he or she is doing for his or her liberation is well and good, but is he or she not a selfish person? Whatever one is doing, one is doing for one’s own liberation – but one is not doing anything for others. You say – is it not a fact? The person is selfish. So while one is doing something for one’s own liberation, one is to serve others also. And how is one to serve others? The best service is viprocita sevá [intellectual service].
You know sevá, that is, service. Service is of four kinds:
Now the best sevá – all the sevás are of equal standard, but the result of viprocita sevá is of permanent nature, while the results of the other three sevás – shúdrocita, kśatriyocita, and vaeshyocita – are of temporary nature: not less important, but of temporary nature. For a hungry man, what will be the best sevá? To feed him. That sevá will not be of permanent nature, but for the time being, it will be the most valuable sevá. If a man is hungry, if he is crying, if he is dying, will you say to him, “Just do [half-bath] and start Iishvara prańidhána [meditation]”? No, no, no – give him food. Yes, it has got temporary importance. But viprocita sevá is of permanent importance. That is why it is called the best sevá.
Now, all these four items come within the scope of hita [welfare]. That is why it has been said, jagaddhitáya ca. Jagat means “world”, hita means “benevolent service”. So whatever you are to do, you are to do for your own liberation – átmamokśárthaḿ. Then, jagaddhitáya ca – “for the hita of the jagat.” Hita includes all the four sevás – shúdrocita, kśatriyocita, vaeshyocita, and viprocita. But you should remember that viprocita sevá is of permanent nature.(1) So a good person should follow this principle: that his or her life is for [self-realization and the welfare of the universe:] átmamokśárthaḿ and jagaddhitáya ca.
Footnotes
(1) A few words here were inaudible on the tape. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Yesterday I said something regarding the Hara-Párvatii saḿváda [dialogues of Shiva and Párvatii], and I think it was quite clear, I think it was crystal-clear, for all of you.(1) Do you know what the meaning of “Hara” [a name of Shiva] is? Spiritual knowledge, aesthetic knowledge, psychic knowledge and so many other kinds of knowledge – such as the knowledge of saḿgiita [music], of art, of architecture, and of medicine – everything comes from that Hara. What is the meaning of “Hara”? Ha is the acoustic root of the ethereal [factor] and ra is the acoustic root of energy. The vibrational flow of energy on the entire ethereal level is “Hara”, that is, in the expressed universe the most vibrating, the most dancing, entity is Hara. Hence Hara is also known as Nat́aráj or Nat́esha [Lord of Dance].
Now, I have told this story to many Margis before, and I am again repeating it today.
Once Párvatii, the spouse of Hara, asked Him, “O Lord, what are the secrets of success?” In your life, in different strata of life, you want success, and everybody wants success; but they do not know what the secrets of success are. So Párvatii asked Shiva, “O Lord, what are the secrets of success?”
Shiva’s reply was,
Phaliśyatiiti vishvásah siddherprathama lakśańam;
Dvitiiyaḿ shraddhayá yuktaḿ trtiiyaḿ gurupújanam.
Caturtho samatábhávo paiṋcamendriyanigrahah;
Śaśt́haiṋca pramitáháro saptamaḿ naeva vidyate.
–Shiva Saḿhitá
[There are seven requirements for success in any mission. The first is firm determination: “I must succeed.” The second is reverence. The third is guru pújá, or constant remembrance of one’s spiritual master. The fourth is equanimity of mind. The fifth is control of the senses. The sixth is a balanced diet. The seventh There is no seventh requirement.]
Phaliśyatiiti vishvásah siddherprathama lakśańam – “I must be successful in my mission.” This firm determination is the first secret of success, that is, the aspirant must develop firm determination. “I must be successful.”
Dvitiiyaḿ shraddhayá yuktaḿ – “the second requisite factor is that the aspirant must have shraddhá.” What is shraddhá? There is, in fact, no corresponding term in English; that term is peculiar to the Sanskrit language. Shrat means the entity, the Desideratum, that has been accepted by the aspirant as the supreme truth. The Desideratum that has no alternative is called shrat. Here shrat means the supreme truth, the absolute truth, the Desideratum that has no alternative. Shrat + dha = shraddhá. Shrat Satyaḿ tasmin dhiiyate iti shraddhá – “Whenever one accepts this Desideratum as the only truth and only goal of life, as the only resort, [that mentality of being goaded] by an ideological flow is shraddhá.” You cannot find any proper word for it in English. Dvitiiyaḿ shraddhayá yuktaḿ.
So the spiritual aspirant, an aspirant in any sphere of life, must develop shraddhá. (So the first requisite factor is the firm determination, “I must be successful”; and the second is that one must have shraddhá.) Without shraddhá nothing can be done. Shraddháván labhate jiṋánam [“One with shraddhá attains self-knowledge”]. Without shraddhá one cannot acquire anything either in the sphere of karma or in the sphere of jiṋána. Bhakti(2) itself is another name for shraddhá. So dvitiiyaḿ shraddhayá yuktaḿ – “the second requisite factor is shraddhá.”
Trtiiyaḿ gurupújanam – “the third thing is gurupújanam.” What is gurupújanam? Withdrawing all your psychic propensities from the different external and internal pabula of the mind and then guiding those withdrawn propensities collectively unto the object of adoration, is called pújanam in Sanskrit.
And what is guru? Gu means “darkness” and ru means [“dispeller”]. Now, all human beings, until they are on the path of spirituality, are surrounded by cimmerian darkness. They cannot see anything properly. And this stage of life is called the shúdra stage; they are shúdras.
Janmaná jáyate shúdrah saḿskárát dvija ucyate;
Vedapát́hát bhavet viprah Brahma jánáti bráhmańah.
[By birth, everybody is a shúdra, i.e., with an animal-like mentality. Going through a [[renewal]], the person becomes a dvija, i.e., expresses the desire to become human. By studying scriptures, a person next becomes a vipra, an intellectual. And finally, when the person realizes Brahma (through psycho-spiritual initiation), he or she becomes a bráhmańa.]
By birth, everybody is a shúdra, because they cannot see anything properly. Shúdra means “[one] living in darkness”.
Saḿskárát dvija ucyate [“going through a renewal according to one’s mental reactive momenta, one becomes a dvija”]. And when the sense is created in their minds that they are not ordinary living beings, but are glorious human beings, who have a mission to perform, then that propulsion is called saḿskára. One becomes a dvija because life takes a new turn. Dvija means “second birth”.
Then when one acquires spiritual knowledge, one becomes an intellectual and is known as a vipra. And when the vipra, by dint of his or her Tantric sádhaná, attains Brahma-hood, he or she is called a bráhmańa. Brahma jánáti Bráhmańah [“when a person realizes Brahma, he or she becomes a bráhmańa”].
Now when the darkness of the mind is dispelled, one can see and one can know what is what and which is which, but the dispelling entity cannot be a mundane one, because the secrets of Parama Puruśa are known to Parama Puruśa alone and to nobody else. So then who is the guru? In Ananda Sútram(3) it is said, Brahmaeva gururekah náparah [“Only Brahma is the guru, no one else”]. His secrets are known to Him alone, and so He is the guru, He is the jagatguru [guru of the universe], He is the supreme guru. No second entity can be the guru, can play the role of guru.
Now, He wants His entire creation – all His children – to know Him. And as they come to know Him, they will become one with Him, they will attain salvation. This is His play, this is His liilá. He creates the crude world, then He creates so many animate entities, and finally He wants those animate entities to try to know Him, try to learn Him. This is what is known as sádhaná. So His children should do sádhaná and should finally again be one with Him. This is His Brahma Cakra [Cosmic Cycle], this is His Liilá Cakra. He is playing with His own children, a play of pain and pleasure. His is the liilá of pain and pleasure. So spiritual aspirants must not be afraid of pain, and must not lose their balance when in pleasure.
So He is the guru. Now what happens? He creates spirituality, and He creates the code of anushásanam [discipline], and everybody will have to move according to that code. But due to constant reflection and [re]fraction (you know that each and every movement, even the movement of spirituality in the realm of the psychic and physical world, undergoes certain changes due to constant reflection and refraction), a time comes when those movements lose their speed, their acceleration, and get retarded. And under such circumstances that jagatguru is forced to [come] in a quinquelemental structure and forced to take the shape of prapaiṋcadeha [quinquelemental structure]. And in our philosophy we call Him Mahásambhúti, the Mahásambhúti of Táraka Brahma [Liberating Brahma]. He comes, and again and again He plays the role of guru in the realm of physicality, and this has been happening again and again since time immemorial. We got Lord Shiva and we got Lord Krśńa. So The Supreme Entity, Táraka Brahma, is the only guru. There cannot be a second guru.
Gurupújanam – that is, the pújanam of the guru. What is the meaning of pújanam? Just now I explained that one should move towards the spiritual desideratum without any hesitation, without any fear, without being goaded by any other of our propensities. That is the human way, that is the way of shreya [the path of supreme well-being]. Hence Lord Shiva says, “The third requisite factor is gurupújanam.”
Caturtho samatábhávo [“The fourth is equanimity of mind”]. But you know, due to certain defects in our socio-economico-politico-cultural life, certain people suffer from inferiority complexes and certain people suffer from superiority complexes. If a poor man suffers from an inferiority complex before a rich man, he will use the term huzur a thousand times in a sentence. And before a poor man, a rich man will suffer from a superiority complex. He will not address the poor man with the word áp, he will use the word tum,(4) as if the poor man has no sense of prestige. Is it not a fact? A spiritual aspirant must not suffer from any of these complexes. One should not have any inferiority complex or any superiority complex. And not only that, one should not suffer from any fear complex or complex of hopelessness or helplessness.
A person must not suffer from an inferiority complex, because that person and his or her friends and siblings are all the progeny of the same Progenitor. They come from the same origin [as all]; they are of the same Father. So why should a person suffer from any inferiority complex? Again, you should not suffer from a superiority complex, because all are your brothers and sisters. All are the glorious children of that Supreme Father. No, you must not develop any superiority complex.
Paiṋcamendriyanigrahah [“the fifth is control of the senses”]. There are two entities within you; two belligerent entities are within you. One is Ravana. Ravana means the evil force, the evil giant, within your mind, that functions in all the ten directions. It is not something external; it is the evil force working within your mind. [And the second entity is Rama, symbolizing the good force.] Let there be a fight between these two entities.
You should establish your restraint over all the sensory and motor organs, including the eleventh organ, the mind.
Śaśt́haiṋca pramitáháro [“the sixth is a balanced diet”]. What is pramitáhára? Pra – má + [kta + áhára] = pramitáhára. That is, the food that helps you in your spiritual and mental development and which is also good for your physical body is called pramitáhára. It must be sáttvika food, because sáttvika food will help you in your spiritual development and in your mental development. And it must be balanced food, because balanced food will help you in your physical progress and physical development, and in maintaining a good physical body. Śaśt́haiṋca pramitáháro.
After listing these six factors, Lord Shiva said, “O Párvatii, there is no seventh factor. These are the six requisite factors which each and every spiritual aspirant should always remember.”
Footnotes
(1) See “Devotion and the Realm of Intellectuality” in Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 5. –Eds.
(2) Jiṋána, karma and bhakti are forms of spiritual practice which emphasize, respectively, discrimination, selfless action, and devotion. –Eds.
(3) Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, Ánanda Sútram, 1962.
(4) Respectful and familiar forms of “you” in Hindi. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Átmamokśárthaḿ jagaddhitáya ca [“For self-realization and the welfare of the universe”] is said to be the ideal of a sádhaka’s life. A person should do work and while doing work should remember that whatever one is doing is meant for self-realization.
If a person is doing sádhaná just for self-realization, no matter that the world is going to hell, will we not call such a person utterly selfish? If one is not doing service to humanity and has no concern for them and is engaged only in sádhaná for self-realization, then he or she deserves to be called self-seeking despite his or her spiritual longing. So it has been said, Átmamokśárthaḿ jagaddhitáya ca. This is the purpose of life. You take much service from the world, by way of subsistence and maintenance, which you must return, or else you accrue a debt. If you are burdened with a big loan at the time of death, what will happen? You will have to be reborn in order to repay your debt with interest.
You take service from the world, therefore you can ill afford not to give something to the world; and you will receive interest in case you give more than you take. It is, of course, your prerogative to accept or not to accept the interest. But you have no such prerogative regarding the repayment of the debt. You will have to repay it. Remember, you have come to this world to render service to it – to render service to the world, and to practise the sádhaná of self-realization. [But] those who do only the sádhaná of self-realization, and refrain from social service, cannot make any headway in their sádhaná. The two are invariably dependent upon each other.
What does it mean to be human? According to one old school of thought, a human being is a rational animal. But in our philosophy, human beings are not regarded as animals. Why call them rational animals? Mere possession of life does not mean one is an animal.
One with life [of a lower order] is called jánvar [animal] in Persian. There are many suffixes in Persian such as dár, var, gar, and so on. For example, those bargaining (saodá) are called saodágar; those possessing life (ján)(1) are called jándár [living being]; one who invades (hamlá) is called hamlábar [an invader]; a demonstrator of magic (jádu) is called jádugar [magician]. So the existence of life makes one a jándár, but one does not become a jánvar [animal] simply due to being jándár [living]. Precisely for this reason I do not support the contention that humans are rational animals.
We say that human life is an ideological flow. Life should have an ideal, and when the movement is towards that ideal, we call it human. Where there is no ideal, nor any movement towards an ideal, we cannot call a life human in spite of any human appearance it may have. So appearance is not the criterion for recognizing humans. In fact we find some persons having more bestiality than the beasts themselves. Beasts do not wage world war. They do not inflict injury on the innocent. So where there is no ideology one becomes worse than a beast. Hence human life is an ideological flow.
It was said in olden times,
Andhaḿ tamah pravishanti ye’ vidyámupásate;
Tato bhúya iva te tamo ya u vidyáyáḿ ratáh.(2)
–Iśa Upaniśad
We also say, “Subjective approach through objective adjustment.” Movement is towards Parama Puruśa, but at the same time maintaining objective adjustment. You have to move giving proper treatment to the objects of the external world. There must be subjective approach, but at the same time objective adjustment; that is, adjustment with the objective world is essential though one’s movement is towards supreme subjectivity.
When Prakrti is in a balanced state, She is called simply Prakrti. When this balance is lost, She is called Máyá. In Máyá, when tamoguńa [the static principle] is predominant, it is called Avidyámáyá, and when sattvaguńa [the sentient principle] is predominant, it is called Vidyámáyá.
What is this Avidyámáyá, this movement towards the crude? What is this crude world? Soul-ward movement is the subjective world. What happens to those who are only concerned with the crude world, who are merely involved in the pursuits of name, fame, money, house, prestige, and so on? Andhaḿ tamah pravishanti – “They are led into darkness.”
And the state of those with sole concern for Vidyámáyá is still worse. They live in the world – take food, clothes and service from the world – and, like hypocrites, declare that there is no world. They say, “All this is unreal. Give it up.” They preach to give up this unreal world, but they themselves eat the food, drink the water and wear the clothes of this unreal world – yet still say that the world is unreal. What state are they in? You know that the owl rules the night. It is powerful only during the night. When the sun rises it cannot see anymore – so it gives no recognition to the sun, it denies the existence of the sun. Likewise, through sheer hypocrisy, some call the world unreal, though they are very much dependent on it to remain alive.
One is a hypocrite who escapes into vidyá alone and says, “I shall do only sádhaná.” If there is no world, from where does one derive the means of sustenance? Suppose a man has renounced the world and has gone to live in a Himalayan cave. There too he will have to eat. He is sitting and constantly thinking that there are fruits on a particular tree. “I saw some the previous evening.” He proceeds to the tree and finds the fruits still there. He thinks, “I must pluck them, otherwise they may be plucked by another sádhu [spiritual aspirant].” See, he is practising hypocrisy. Or else he is thinking, “I have renounced my home and hearth, but maybe my cousins have let their buffaloes into my field and they are grazing the crops.” Thinking all these things, what does he become? He becomes a hypocrite. That is why it is said that paying attention only to vidyá leads to greater darkness.
What then should one do? There must be an adjustment between the two. Sannyásins(3) practise átmamokśárthaḿ jagaddhitáya ca. These sannyásins are not the ones living for their bellies alone. They are serving the society. Those serving this world do not strive for vidyá alone; they also serve the world. This should, in fact, be done not only by sannyásins, but by family people as well.
What is the difference between the two?
The life of a householder is a little troublesome. Why is it? A householder has two families – small as well as big. What is the small family? It includes one’s parents, sisters, brothers, spouse, and other relatives such as aunts, uncles and so on. The Indian family is a [relatively] big one. In the Indian tradition, even the sisters of one’s father and mother are included in the family. This is one’s small family.
And the big family is the whole universe and its suffering humanity.
What does a householder have to do? He or she has to maintain a balance between the two families. One invariably has to look after and expend for the small family, and, simultaneously, work for the big family. If one devotes all one’s time and energy to the small family, totally ignoring the big family, one becomes a fallen and degenerated householder. Likewise, if one pays attention only to the big family and neglects the small family consisting of one’s parents, brothers, sisters, etc., then again one falls.
Just see how difficult it is to keep adjustment between the two. A wife will be annoyed if a husband donates much money [to social service]. Therefore he donates twenty-five rupees with the wife’s knowledge and another twenty rupees without her knowledge, and thus establishes adjustment. Sannyásins need not establish adjustment.
You know our workers(4) have to collect [donations of] paddy, wheat, and so on for the children of our [children’s] homes. The workers say that if they visit the farmyard, the farmer donates a bigger quantity, but if they are delayed and have to collect from the farmer’s house, the farmer’s wife donates a little less. Thus the householder has to maintain adjustment between the two. But the sannyásin has only one family – the big family – so there is no question of adjustment there.
Those who go by vidyá alone, that is, who endeavour only for self-realization, and deny the objective world (although in reality they cannot deny it since they have to eat, wear clothes and bathe) have been called hypocrites in the scriptures.
And those who go by avidyá alone, guided by materialistic theories, like the materialists of the present age, what state are they in? Andhaḿ tamah pravishanti ye’ vidyámupásate – “They gradually move from light into darkness.”
What is materialistic philosophy? It is the product of an undeveloped brain. And what are its consequences? Those who follow it gradually move towards darkness.
A person becomes like his or her iśt́a [goal] and talks only about that. For example, Shabda Brahma [Brahma expressed as sound; oṋḿkára]. The first singer and dancer of India and of the world was Sadáshiva. He talked about Shabda Brahma. He named it náda. His existence was indeed sonic. Likewise, one who thinks about matter will one day become matter. This is the natural law. The businessman who always thinks, “money, money,” will never again be born as a human. He will not be born as a dog, goat, or sheep, either. After death he will become money, and will remain confined in the box of a businessman. That was indeed his goal. So materialistic philosophy converts one into matter. After death, materialists will become shirts or wine according to the objects of their thinking.
The greatest wealth of a human being is his or her intellect. One should not drink. Why? Because drinking destroys the intellect. In the natural state, one thinks many thoughts in his or her unconscious mind. Knowledge is stored in the unconscious mind. One thinks in the unconscious mind and controls one’s actions through the conscious mind.
Suppose there is a beggar in Nagpur city. He imagines that he is the emperor of Delhi. But since his conscious mind says, “No, you are not the emperor of Delhi, you are the beggar of Nagpur,” he does not say it openly. But if he drinks wine, his conscious mind stops functioning. Due to lack of control over his conscious mind, walking along the road he will say aloud, “I am the emperor of Delhi.”
Intellect controls every action of a person, but drinking destroys it. That is why wine is a bad thing.
Materialism is equally bad. It too destroys the intellect and converts it into bricks and stones. Therefore materialistic philosophy is more dangerous for the society even than a dacoit. You have to fight against materialistic philosophy tooth and nail, for it is the greatest enemy of humanity.
[In one sense,] materialists are led into greater darkness [than the escapist sádhus]. Light obeys a rule: when scattered, it divides into seven colours – violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Accordingly, there are seven lokas [levels of the Cosmic Mind]. The unmanifest universe above the seven lokas does not have kala [seed]. Brahma at this stage is called niskala [without seed]. And this, our world, is sakala [with seed]. This [world] is Sakala Brahma and that [state] Niskala Brahma. Now what exists beyond the seven worlds? Only white effulgence and no colour. White is not a colour. The combination of all colours is white.
Similarly there are [mythologically] seven worlds [netherworlds, hells] below bhúrloka: tala, atala, vitala, talátala, pátála, atipátála and rasátala. Rasátala is the lowest of all. The colour of all these seven worlds is black. Black is no colour. Want of colour is black, so there we find blackness. (But there are degrees even in blackness; all blackness is not the same. For instance, even the [blackest-skinned] people belonging to the Austric race are not as black as Negroes. Nor are they as black as Dravidians. [And mythologically, the upper hells are lighter shades of black than the upper hells.])
Well, there is something! Those who have transcended the seven worlds [whether above or below] find no colour differentiation there. So they do not believe in casteism. All humans are one for them! The divisions of Vipra, Kśatriya, Shúdra and Vaeshya do not hold water for them. All are one and the same for them. So it has been said:
Varńáshramábhimánena shrutidásye bhavennarah;
Varńáshramvihiinashca vartate shruti múrdhańi.(5)
One then sits atop the scriptures.
There are seven shades of darkness corresponding to the seven worlds below. What are these shades? Tamah [is the first and] means simply “black”, the second is tamasá, third mahátamasá, fourth andhatamasá, fifth tamishrá, sixth mahátamishrá, and seventh andhatamishrá. What is this last, this andhatamishrá? It is the darkness in which it is not possible even to see one’s own hands. When one becomes materialistic – extremely materialistic – one’s intellect and conscience are all lost. One cannot see even the hands by which he or she accepts a bribe or holds a cup of wine. One thinks, “Whatever I do is right.” That is why it is said, Andhaḿ tamah pravishanti [“One who follows the path of avidyá falls into darkness”]. He or she will go down to rasátala. Rasátala is a stage far below even dogs and goats. Dogs and goats never go below bhuvarloka. They are far superior to those in rasátala. For their physical bodies are in bhúrloka and their crude mental bodies are in bhuvarloka. Animals do not fall. Humans fall down as well as rise up.
A river flows from high to low. The Gauṋgottarii flows towards the Ganges, and the Ganges towards the Gangasagar [mouth of the Ganges]. But the Gangasagar never travels back to the Ganges, nor the Ganges to the Gauṋgottarii; because rivers always flow downward. But the flow of the Ganges of the human mind is bi-directional. This mental Ganges can flow from the Gauṋgottarii to the Ganges and vice versa. What, therefore, what should you contemplate? You should think, “I will go from the Gangasagar to the Gauṋgottarii.”
Materialists, despite human form, do not practise sádhaná. Nothing is stationary in this world. Everything is moving. If one does not move upward, does not endeavour for the upliftment of his or her self, then one is bound to move downward, because movement is essential – if it is not upward, it has to be downward. So everyone should make an effort. One should not think to remain stagnant where he or she is. You cannot, in fact, remain where you are. If your movement is not upward, you are destined to fall. Therefore, wise men and women will make efforts to move upward.
You must begin an upward march right now, no matter how great wrongs you have committed in the past. Proceed onward from this very moment. Forget the past. Think to become Parama Puruśa. Tomorrow may never come in your life, it is futile to think of tomorrow. You should contemplate now what you have to become [by] the following day.
Footnotes
(1) Another example, that was unclear in the original magazine publication of this discourse, omitted here. –Eds.
(2) “One who follows the path of Avidyá falls into darkness, but one who devotes oneself to the path of Vidyá only falls into deeper darkness.” Avidyá is the aspect of the Cosmic Operative Principle which guides movements from the subtle to the crude, and Vidyá is the aspect of the Operative Principle which guides movements from the crude to the subtle. –Eds.
(3) Literally, “one who has surrendered one’s everything to the Cosmic will” or “one who ensconces oneself in Sat, the unchangeable entity”; a renunciant. –Eds.
(4) Missionary sannyásins and sannyásiniis of Ananda Marga. –Eds.
(5) “One who accepts the divisions of society according to varńa and áshrama is a veritable slave of the Vedas. But one who is above varńa and áshrama is the lord of the Vedas.” There are four varńas (castes) – Vipra, Kśatriya, Vaeshya and Shúdra – and four áshramas – Brahmacarya, or student life; gárhasthya, family life; váńaprasthya, retirement in solitude; and sannyása or yati, the life of renunciation. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Human Expressions
First, human expressions. Each and every living entity expresses something from its central point. Human expressions are, in that respect, many in the physical stratum: you sing, you laugh, you work, you do so many things. But all these expressions come from a single entity and a single controlling point. There are several sub-stations, but the controlling station is the same.
I said in Timmern [Germany] that the controlling one is called the noumenal entity and the expressed ones are the phenomenal entities. You are one boy, Liilánanda – Liilánanda speaks, he dances, he jumps, he swims, he rolls on the ground – all those expressions are his phenomenal expressions. But his entity, the controlling entity, the entity from which so many actional waves emanate, is what? In this respect, in the small world of Liilánanda, Liilánanda is the noumenal entity.
In the sphere of criminology the noumenal entity is falsehood, and all other corrupt practices, all other criminal activities, are phenomenal expressions.
In the case of falsehood [as the noumenal entity], sin and crime coincide. In all other [cases] there are two different entities.(1) That which is not supported by the law of the land is called crime, and that which is not supported by cardinal human principles is sin. But you know, the law of the land is a creation of certain persons of the land, that is, of those who are elected or selected, representative or king. There are so many people who create the law of the land. Their decision may or may not be correct, but the definition of crime varies from country to country, locality to locality. In America, in the USA, the definition of crime varies from state to state, even in the same country.
You know in Japan, to commit suicide is neither a sin nor a crime. In India to commit suicide is a sin under certain circumstances, not always: when one commits suicide for the welfare of a large number of the populace, then it is not treated as sin; when it is a personal issue, it is treated as sin. And so far as crime is concerned in India, it is a crime to try to commit suicide, but it is not a crime to commit suicide. If one is trying to commit suicide, he or she [can be punished] by the government. In Britain [if one tries] to commit suicide, it is a crime, and if one commits suicide, even then it is a crime, and in that case also the person will be punished – his or her property will be forfeited. Do you follow?
The definition of crime varies from land to land, but the cardinal human values are the same, not only for this planet but everywhere in the universe.
Just now I said that it is falsehood [a noumenal cause] where sin and crime coincide. Now in the case of human expressions, a single entity, a person, is the noumenal cause, and there are so many phenomenal expressions. All those phenomenal expressions depend on the single noumenal entity and on the standard of the noumenal entity. If a person is good, his or her expressions are also good. So what we require is that the standard of each and every human being be raised. If all the bricks of the room are strong, the room will also be strong; so if all the individuals are strong, if at least they are moralists, all humanity will be benefited by it.
(1) Now there are so many human expressions in the physical stratum. We do so many things, and for these human expressions in the physical stratum we have got a physical body. A human body is the most complicated biological structure. There are so many propensities in the human mind, and for expression of many propensities in the psychic stratum there are so many nerve cells, so many centres of activity, so many nuclei in the realm of the mind. And for outer expression and for reception of waves from outer worlds, human bodies have got so many nerve fibres – a human body is the most complicated biological structure.
(2) And humans have been blessed with certain excellent structures. There is a heaven-and-hell difference between an animal body and a human body. The most developed animal bodies – those of apes of certain groups – are very developed, but there is a heaven-and-hell difference between their bodies and a human body, and it is [not] very difficult to find the difference between the most developed animal and the most undeveloped human being. So the human body is not only physical but is an excellent medium of higher psychic expressions.
(3) And the third human expression which is lacking in other animals is the spiritual expression. A person who has high taste in the aesthetic sphere may forget eating and drinking, and a person who has developed deep love for the Supreme Being forgets all his psychic pursuits even. If you insult a dog, and the next moment call the dog to take food, it will accept that food from your hands. But if you insult a person and ask that person to take food, even a very delicious food, he or she, in order to maintain prestige, or save himself or herself from humiliation, will not accept. Human beings even commit suicide due to psychic pressure.
Animals, low-grade animals, also sometimes commit suicide. Certain aquatic animals commit suicide. But that is not due to psychic pressure, it is due to inborn instinct. Whales of certain groups and mice of certain groups do commit suicide, collective suicide.
Now human expressions are trifarious – physical expression, psychic expression and spiritual expression. The spiritual expression is the highest and subtlest expression of human existence. And here lies the speciality of humans. In the physical stratum each and every human being is a species. Nobody is just like others. Even in a small family, brothers and sisters vary from one another. No two face-cuttings are the same. On the psychic level humans are divided into several kinds of ideologies, and they fight amongst themselves, just for ideology, and ideology remains in some sphere of abstraction, and they quarrel amongst themselves. They quarrel regarding religion, regarding different isms with different views, regarding sports. One person will say, “My team will win,” while another will say, “But my team [can] fight” – in football or any other sport. And there was one very important play in Spain, toros or something like that – “bullfighting”. People were very much interested in it, and they [the fans] used to fight amongst themselves, and it is not a physical fight, it is a psychic fight. But in the realm of spirituality there cannot be any fight, because the Supreme Goal is one, a singular entity.
So spiritualism, rather spirituality, is not only the highest and noblest human speciality, but is the only unifying point, the only unifying platform, for the entire human society. There may be so many human races Negroid, Austric, Mongoloid, Caucasian. Amongst Mongolians there are so many Malays, Japano- and Sino- [blendings], Tibeto-Indians, so many of those. Amongst Caucasians there are Nordics, Scandinavians; Alpines in middle Europe; Mediterraneans in Italy, south France, Spain and Portugal. But human society is a singular entity – humans belong to the same society. So here the Supreme Noumenal Entity is the spiritual nave. Now humans of this last portion of the twentieth century should strengthen that nave, should strengthen that Supreme Noumenal Entity, and on the basis of this Supreme Noumenal Entity lies their universal fraternity – they are children of the same Supreme Father. The Supreme Progenitor is one; His children are many in number. If the children quarrel amongst themselves on petty affairs, this will certainly not satisfy the Supreme Father. He has given humans, that is, the human body, a developed cranium, a developed brain, developed nerve cells and nerve fibres. Humans should utilize them properly. There should be maximum utilization of all your assets, and by utilizing your assets, you, in your individual and collective capacities, will be assets to human society.
Human Movement
Now, human movement. What is movement? Movement means change of place. This bolster is here; I bring it here. There is change of place. So I have done some work; some action has been done. Insofar as actions and expressions are concerned, that is, human approaches are concerned, they are four in number:
(1) [Regarding human existence] in the physical stratum, whatever you do in the physical stratum is your physical activity. Whatever you do to maintain your body, to maintain your life, to maintain proper security of individual and collective life, is your physical action.
(2) Then again, you are not merely an animal: simply eating, drinking and sleeping is not everything for a human. A human has a subtler life, a more charming life, a more fascinating life, so your physical existence moves towards your psychic existence, and this movement is your [quest] for higher life, your [quest] for subtler life, that is, your physico-psychic movement, starting from the physical level and moving towards the psychic level. Your physico-psychic activities are architecture, literature, dance, music – they are all your physico-psychic movement. And this movement is from crude to subtle, starting from the cruder arena and moving towards the subtler arena. That’s why in Ananda Marga I encourage this physico-psychic movement: because it will help you in moving towards the subtler world, in moving towards the supreme spiritual goal.
(3) Then the third human [movement] is on the pure psychic level. Your thought-waves, your subtler thoughts, your aesthetic tastes, they are all your psychic movement. For physico-psychic movement, I encourage boys and girls to start work in the RAWA [Renaissance Artists’ and Writers’ Association] movement. You know, to work in RAWA, high-grade intellect is not necessary. But for pure psychic movement, pure psychic development, higher intellect is necessary. And in that realm also humans are to be encouraged, because it is even subtler than physico-psychic movement – it is pure psychic movement. And for that I encourage the intellectuals of Ananda Marga to form RU [Renaissance Universal] Clubs. Let there be psychic development, let there be clashes and cohesions in the realm of intellect. This will help a person to move from crude to subtle. This is the third expression of the human actional faculty.
(4) And the last one is psycho-spiritual movement. In psycho-spiritual movement, the action starts on the intellectual level and ends on the spiritual level. And when this movement, this psycho-spiritual development, crosses the last boundary of the sentient principle, that intellectual movement, that is, that intellectual-spiritual progress, is converted into intuitional progress – that is, you come within the arena of intuition. For intuition you do not require any brain, any nerve cell or any nerve fibre. Where intuition is developed, you become one with Parama Puruśa, you become omniscient, that is, all-knowing; you do not even require any physical body. You need not go through so many books; the universe is within you, you are all-knowing. You will know the history of Spain without going through books; you will know the geography of Italy without going through books. That is, when your existence comes in close proximity to the existence of Parama Puruśa, the two nuclei coincide, you get what you want, and that is called salvation.
Footnotes
(1) Some words that were unclear in the original Bábá in Fiesch publication of this discourse omitted here. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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For each and every piece of work you should know what is what and which is which; why you are doing this, why you are not doing that. So many times in the past I said that our human society is a singular entity. It is integral, it cannot be divided into fragments and parts, because rudimentally humanity is one.
Does a child know that it belongs to a particular country? Does a child know that it is white or it is black or it is yellow? Does it know – a child, a little one? It does not. We senior people inject so many isms into their minds. We say, “You belong to the upper class;” we say, “You belong to the lower caste.” We say, “You are a Jew,” “You are a Muslim,” and so many things. We, the senior people, are responsible for all these differences in human society. But human society is one. And who are the people at fault? The senior persons, the respectable persons. Is it not a fact? You say – Is it not a fact?
[Audience replies: “It is a fact.”]
Our society is one. And I am preaching this from my very childhood – that human society is one.
Say, creed. We say there are so many creeds. “We are serving the human society irrespective of creed.” We say like this. But can there be more than one creed? What is the human creed? To move towards the Supreme Entity, move towards the Supreme Source, the perennial source of bliss. It is the only creed. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are all moving towards – what? We are all seekers of – what? We want – what? We want bliss. We want peace. So for the entire human society the creed is – what? How many? One. We are all knowingly or unknowingly moving towards Him; so human society cannot have more than one creed.
Can there be more than one creed? No. Those who say that there are so many creeds in society are actually – they do not resort to truth. I will not say they resort to falsehood, because they are also gentlemen and ladies. But I must say that they are not resorting to truthfulness. (Because I am a gentleman, I am to use guarded language.) [laughter]
The second thing, you see, people may say there are so many religions. No, there is only one religion, not so many religions. And that religion is sanátana dharma, mánava dharma, Bhágavata dharma. That is, what is religion? The goal is attainment of Godhood, to be one with the Supreme Father, to come near the Supreme Father, to enjoy the supreme bliss. That is the goal.
So can there be more than one religion? No. Those who say like this are not religious people. They are agents of religious ism. Can there be more than one religion? There is only one human religion, and that religion teaches us to move towards the Supreme Father.
Class. Is it a creation of the Supreme Entity? All classes, say in the sense of economic classes, rich, poor, etc. – are they God-given or man-made? What are they?
[Audience replies: “Man-made.”]
Man-made. These things are creations of our defective social order. And who is the creator of this defective social order? Human beings.
And, caste. When all are children of the Supreme Father, all are progeny of the Supreme Entity, children of the same Father, can they belong to more than one caste? If the father is a Brahman, his children will certainly be Brahmans. Children inherit the caste of the father.(1) When the Supreme Father for the world is one, can there be more than one caste in human society? You say – I just ask you. No, there cannot be more than one caste. No Brahman and no Shúdra, all one. When they have got the same father, the same progenitor, then they must belong to the same caste. So my decision is final and supreme. Human society is a singular entity; human society is one and indivisible.
When paying respect to a person, we should remember this fact: that we belong to the same class, same creed, same community, same religion, same family. We have this supreme family binding with one another. Nobody is superior to you; nobody is inferior to you. You pay respect to anybody and everybody because anybody and everybody is an expression of that Supreme Entity.
What is our style of extending goodwill? We say, Namaskár. That is, “I pay respect to the Supreme Entity residing within you.” You should remember this. “I concentrate all the good feelings of my mind here in the trikut́i [between the eyebrows].”
In your mind there are so many propensities. Propensities are called vrtti in Sanskrit. So there are so many vrttis, so many propensities, in your mind. One portion of your mind is saying, “Today I’ll take hot rice.” Another portion is saying, “In the near future I’ll try to go to Calcutta.” Another portion of your mind is saying, “Now I’ll have to do some relief service to the people.” Another portion is saying, “I should do something concrete for the refugees.” There are so many thoughts within your mind.
Another portion of your mind is saying, “I’ll become a wholetime worker. I’ll leave my house.” Another portion is saying, “But my mother will be weeping.” Another portion is saying, “No, no, I’ll have to do something for the greater world.”
So many thoughts are in your mind. But you should concentrate all your thoughts at a particular point, here – that is, with all the strength and goodwill of your mind you are doing this – you are touching these two palms here [trikut́i]. That is, you are concentrating all your goodwill here, because you are paying respect to Parama Puruśa residing within this body; this body; this body; this body [pointing to different people]. First do this.
And not only mental concentration, you are human beings, you have got so many sentiments also. Human sentiment, you know? When you feel much joy you burst into tears, when much sorrow you burst into tears. These are sentiments. And human beings are guided by sentiment, more by sentiment than by logic, you must not forget it – more by sentiment than by logic. So your sentiment is also there, so with all the concentration of your mind and with all the sweetness of your sentiment, from the very core of your heart, you are paying respect to Parama Puruśa residing within human structure. So you do this [palms together at mid-point of chest], and say, Namaskár.
I think you have understood it? A very sweet idea. So it is my opinion, my desire, that human society [be] one, indivisible; it is an expressed form, a sweet expression, of Parama Puruśa, to whom you should always pay respect by doing namaskár.
Footnotes
(1) Here the author voices a caste rule used by dogmatists, to show that their same logic can lead to a different conclusion. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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So many times I said that human existence is an ideological flow. You know, plants, animals and humans all are living beings, but there are certain differences amongst them. Plants cannot move, cannot walk, and certainly they are underdeveloped – they have underdeveloped intellect. They have got intellect, but less development. And in the case of animals, they can move, and they have got a bit developed intellect. In the case of animal life, life means physical pleasure – eating, sleeping, dying. But in the case of humans, it is an ideological flow. That is, a human can desert anything and everything for the sake of his or her ideology. A human can die for the sake of his or her ideology. But animals have got no such ideology, no goal of life; it is a goal-less movement. Animals’ movement is a goal-less movement, moving only to get food.
You are all human beings. The old Vaeśńavas said (vaeśńava means “universalist” – Viśńu means “Universal Lord”, and vaeśńava means “universalist”),
Krśńa bhajibár tare saḿsáre áinu;
Miche Máyáy baddha haye vrkśasama hainu.
[I came to the world to worship Lord Krśńa, but I have become bound by illusion and become like a tree.]
Krśńa. Krśńa is the ideological goal for each and every human being. Human life is for – what? Moving towards that supreme nucleus personality. One boy told me that his name is Krśńa Dása, that is, “serving Krśńa”. A very good name. A person comes for what purpose? To do according to the desire of the Supreme Lord, to do according to the desire of God, the Supreme Desideratum of human beings. But due to [dis]tractions, due to deviations, [some people] live like ordinary animals. If a person does not move towards his or her ideological goal, he or she is just like an animal. But in my opinion that person is not just like an animal, that person is worse than an animal. Because animals are deficient in intellect, they do not know what to do, how to do, why to do – but humans know, so [if they do not serve God] they are worse than animals. So I say,
Miche Máyáy baddha haye vrkśádhama hainu.
[I have become bound by illusion and become worse than a tree.]
In Sanskrit vrkśa or vrkśa [giving Tantric and Vedic pronunciations] means “plant”, “tree”. Now, human life is an ideological flow, and ideological flow means moving towards the Nucleus of this Cosmological system, of this entire universe. (You know about “nucleus”: In the case of our ethereal system, the earth is the nucleus, and the moon moves around the earth. In the case of our solar system, the sun is the nucleus, and so many planets and satellites are moving around the sun, knowingly or unknowingly. Similarly, for the entire Cosmos Parama Puruśa is the nucleus, and everybody is moving around Him, knowingly or unknowingly. This is the ideological flow.)
Now while moving towards that Supreme Krśńa, Supreme Nucleus, of the Cosmos, one is to remember eight points. Lord Buddha said these eight points are as follows:
The first important point is samyak darshana. Darshana means “philosophy”. A person should have – should be guided by – proper philosophy. The philosophy is the guideline, and a person is to move as per the philosophy. What to do, what not to do; what are the dos of a perfect human and what are the don’ts. Samyak darshana. So a person must have a proper philosophy. Unless and until a person knows the proper philosophy, how is he or she to do [the right thing]? If you are to go to, say, Rangoon, you will move accordingly, but if you don’t know where to go, how can you move? So a proper philosophy of life, a proper darshana, is a primordial necessity.
But can a philosophy guide a person if the person is sleeping? If his or her potentiality is in latent form or dormant form, it cannot. A human moves, a human can move, by what? By his or her propulsive propensity. There must be a propensity guiding us – a propulsive propensity in order to move. So for this a person requires a strong determination – “I must move. I must move.” And then do it. There must not be any negative thought in the mind. “Will it be possible for me to do?” – such a question must not arise in the mind, and whenever there is such a question, it means you will not be successful in your mission. Your thinking should always be positive: “Yes, I must be successful.” There must not be any question regarding your success. Lord Shiva said, Phaliśyatiiti vishvásah siddherprathama lakśańam – “The first factor for attaining success is the firm determination that ‘I must be successful.’” And Lord Buddha said the second factor is samyak saḿkalpa, that is, proper determination. (Here the word is samyak; in Sanskrit samyak means “proper”. Samyak saḿkalpa.) One may say, “I will be the greatest thief.” That is not proper saḿkalpa. [laughter] But saḿkalpa should be proper – proper determination, firm determination. “I must be an asset to human society” – this type of determination.
Then the third thing is samyak vák. You know, human beings have got two types of organs, that is, five afferent and five efferent – karmendriya and jiṋánendriya in sanskrit. Now the collection of karmendriyas is known as vák – doing something, thinking something, saying something – that is, wherever there is external expression. That is called karmendriya. And wherever there is internal movement, taking something from the outside world, it is called jiṋánendriya. Samyak vák – that is, whatever you are to do, whatever you are to speak, whatever you are to touch, it should be of proper order. It is the third direction for a person who moves along the ideological flow. Samyak vák.
The fourth point is samyak ájiiva. Ájiiva has two meanings. Ájiiva means – the actual meaning of the word is “occupation”. But occupation may be of two types – physical occupation, earning money, and psychic occupation, that is, the object of thinking.
So one must have a clean occupation, that is, one must not do anything antisocial, one must not encourage anything antisocial, anything that goes against collective interest. That is samyak ájiiva in physical sphere. One may earn money by selling wine. One may earn money by stealing. These are not samyak ájiiva. Your occupation should be neat and clean – not going against the interest of the society.
And the second ájiiva is psychic ájiiva, psychic occupation. For “psychic occupation” there is a special term in Sanskrit; it is ábhoga. In English you may say “psychic pabulum”. (English or Latin? Latin.) That is, suppose one’s object of thought is a thief, what will happen? What is the psychic process? When you think something, your mind is then and there divided into two parts. One is the subjective part, and the other is the objective counterpart. And when you are thinking of a bad man, or a thief, what will happen? The objective counterpart of your mind will take the form of that thief, will take the form of that bad man, and slowly what will happen? Your subjective counterpart of the mind, that is, seer portion of the mind (one portion is seer and the other portion is seeing) will be slowly converted into that bad man, and slowly you will become a bad man. So a bad man must not be your object of ideation, should not be your object of meditation. If you think of a bad man, you will become a bad man.
You know, there is a particular insect in India, it is called peshaskrt. It kills cockroaches. You know the cockroach, that red insect? Yes. And cockroaches are very much afraid of that insect. So when a cockroach sees that insect, that insect becomes its object of ideation; that is, its objective counterpart of the mind becomes, takes the form of – what? [The peshaskrt.]And what happens? Slowly the body of the cockroach is converted into the body of that peshaskrt. That is, the cockroach itself is converted into the form of its killer.
So your psychic ájiiva should also be very pure. And what is the best psychic ájiiva? Parama Puruśa. Krśńa, Parama Puruśa, is the best ájiiva. And if Parama Puruśa becomes the objective counterpart of your mind, then slowly what will happen? Your very existence will be converted into Parama Puruśa. So the fourth instruction was samyak ájiiva. Ájiiva means occupation. (Jiiviká in modern Sanskrit.)
Then the fifth instruction was samyak vyáyám. Vyáyám, you know? Vyáyám means “exercise”. Physical exercise, you know? And there are also instrumental exercises and so many exercises… But here, just as with physical exercises, you should undergo psychic exercises to strengthen your mind. So you must have, you must practise, what? Psychic exercise also. Physical exercise will make you strong, strong like a rhinoceros, strong like an elephant, but not strong in mind, strong in spirit. A human cannot be stronger than an elephant or rhinoceros in physical strength; it is not possible. So you must practise psychic exercise – in Sanskrit mánasik vyáyám. “Psychic” is mánasik in Sanskrit, mánasik vyáyám. And what is mánasik vyáyám? You have to learn it from your ácárya. You have to learn the process of your mánasik vyáyám, that is, psychic exercise, from your ácárya. How to do it? Samyak vyáyám.
Then samyak karmánta. I will not say in many people, but in certain people, I find a particular defect, and that defect is, the person starts some work, but leaves the work unfinished. This is very bad. Whenever you start any work, then you should complete it in proper order. That is, the finishing touch should be of proper order. This is called karmánta in Sanskrit. Buddha said, samyak karmánta. Whatever you are to do or whatever you are doing, finish it in proper style. Samyak karmánta.
And the seventh instruction is samyak smrti. In Sanskrit smrti means “memory”. What is smrti? Anubhúta viśayá sampramośah smrtih [“Memory is the re-creation of things already perceived”]. Suppose you are seeing an elephant. What is the Sanskrit term for “elephant”, R–?
[R– replies, Hastii.]
Hastii. Gaja. Varańa. Aerávata. Karii. Ahh. So many names. Suppose you are seeing an elephant, what will happen? The objective counterpart of your mind will take the form of the elephant. The objective portion of your mind will be converted into the elephant when you are actually seeing it. But when the elephant is not present, but by dint of your psychic power you are again creating that elephant in your objective portion of mind, that second creation, rather re-creation (not “recreation”, “re-creation”) of the elephant, is called memory.
Now I think there are so many graduates amongst you, and doctors – if you are asked to appear for the examination, the medical final, will you be able to pass just now? No. You have forgotten everything. Your smrti, that is, your memory, will not help you. The smrti has become – what? Very dilute, very faint, due to constant waning. What should be the best smrti? I think your ácáryas told you that you should repeat and recite your Iśt́a mantra whenever possible; I think this was the instruction of your ácáryas, was it not? Internally, Iśt́a mantra and guru mantra. But you forget it. Because your smrti is very dilute. So the best object of smrti is Parama Puruśa. Never forget Him. Always take His name, as per the advice of your ácárya. This is samyak smrti, that is, proper memory. The person who is established, the spiritual aspirant who is established, in samyak smrti, that is, who never forgets the Lord, is called – that particular state of mind is called dharmamegha samádhi, that is, the person is established in proper smrti. That bliss enjoyed by the spiritual aspirant is called dharmamegha samádhi.
And the last instruction, the eighth one, is samyak samádhi. Suppose one concentrates one’s mind on a particular flower. In this phase or process of concentration, first of all, the figure of that flower will disappear. In the second phase the colour of the flower will disappear. And finally, the existence of the seer will merge into the existence, into the theoretical existence, of that flower. This suspension of mind into its object is known as samádhi.
Now when the object of mind is Saguńa Brahma, that is, the Attributional Consciousness, the samádhi enjoyed by the aspirant is called savikalpa samádhi; and when the goal is Nirguńa Brahma, the Non-Attributional Entity, the samádhi enjoyed by the aspirant is called nirvikalpa samádhi – it is the highest stage of samádhi.
One attains nirvikalpa by practising dhyána [meditation in which the psyche is directed towards Consciousness]. What’s the Pali term for dhyána? Do you know Pali, any of you? The Pali term is jhán. The Japanese term is “zen”. Hmm? Mmm. One boy [looking towards someone in the audience] says yes, yes, yes. By dint of – what? By practising dhyána, by practising jhán, by practising “zen”.
So this is the eight-fold approach as prescribed by Lord Buddha, and this advice is the best advice for a spiritual aspirant. One must strictly adhere to these fundamental principles.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Structures
So far as structural solidarity is concerned, the best shape is the oval shape. “Oval” means (in Latin ovum means egg) “similar to an egg, not exactly like an egg but to some extent like an egg; not exactly elliptical but to some extent elliptical”. All celestial bodies are of that shape. That’s why in Sanskrit this universe is called Brahmáńd́a. (Ańd́a means “egg”. And from the Sanskrit word ańd́a it became ańd́á in the Urdu language.)
Now, this universe of ours is very big, but not infinite. It is an elliptical figure, an oval figure, which means it has a boundary line. Yes, it is very big, and actually so big that we cannot measure it; but in theory it can be measured.
Just now I said the most convenient figure is the oval, or elliptical, figure. Take the case of a small atom. Here what happens? In that structure there is the nucleus, the heaviest matter of the structure, and the electrons are moving round that nucleus. A similar structure is our ethereal structure: the earth is the nucleus, and the moon is moving round that nucleus. The next bigger structure is our solar system: the sun is the nucleus, and so many planets are moving round it. And the biggest structure is the Cosmological structure: Parama Puruśa (Puruśottama, the Supreme Nucleus, the Supreme Hub) is in the middle, and so many animated and non-animated objects are moving round it.
Now, this movement is affected by two forces. All students of science know that they are the centrifugal force and the centripetal force. The centripetal force tries to decrease the radius, and the centrifugal force tries to drift the moving object away from the nucleus. In Sanskrit this centripetal force is called Vidyá and the centrifugal force is called Avidyá. (In common parlance, for Avidyá we use the word Shaytán – “Satan” in English.)
Now knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or unconsciously, each and every entity, either physical or psychic, is moving round that Parama Puruśa. In the case of finite objects or finite structures or systems, when one moving entity goes far away from its nucleus, it is attracted by another nucleus, and in the course of this there take place so many clashes among so many nuclei. But in the case of the Cosmological order, there is a single nucleus for the entire [expressed] universe. The question of going beyond the jurisdiction of that nucleus does not arise. That is, when human beings are highly influenced by Avidyá, their radius from the nucleus increases, but the radius is always there. A human being, an animal, a plant, an inanimate object – everybody will have to move; and that’s why I said movement is life. Stirlessness means death.
When Dogma Functions in a Structure
And when people are guided by – not guided by, controlled by – dogmas, their stir is lost, so they become lifeless. They are worse than dead bodies. So you boys and you girls, you should know that you must never allow any dogma to goad you, to drift you, away from your nucleus. Never allow your radius to increase. Always try to decrease your radius. Always try to come in closer and closer proximity to the nucleus of this universe.
Dogma Also a Structure
You may ask, “Bábá,(1) what is dogma?” You should remember, you are all educated boys and girls: dogma is a psychic structure. All ideas are psychic structures; but regarding their boundary lines there should be some flexibility.
I think some of you have come in contact with our Prout theory. I think you have gone through it. There is the fifth item, the fifth fundamental factor, where it is said that the style of utilization should vary in accordance with [changes in] time, space and person. Didn’t I say like this? That is, there is, or there lies, scope for flexibility – no rigidity, flexibility. Because the human mind will not tolerate anything rigid. It wants movement. Not only movement, it wants accelerated movement.
But what is dogma? Dogma is also an idea, but there is rigidity of the boundary line. Dogma will not allow you to go beyond the periphery of that boundary line. That is, dogma goes against the fundamental spirit of the human mind.
(Knowingly or unknowingly, each and every object will have to move round the Supreme Nucleus. There is no alternative. But in case of dogma, what happens? While moving near the Nucleus, the unit mind is highly influenced by the Cosmic Mind as it proceeds towards the Nucleus for the purpose of coincidence. And when it actually coincides, the unit mind becomes one with the Cosmic Mind, and the Cosmic Mind knows no dogma.)
So from the very starting point you should be active, you should be vocal, in fighting against the influence of dogmas. It is due to these dogmas that human society could not progress properly. Otherwise human intellect has developed much during the last five thousand years; it has developed still more during the last two hundred years; and since the second world war – during the last few decades – it has developed still more.
Crisis of Civilization
Now, although there has been intellectual progress, there is a crisis of civilization. What is the breeding ground of this crisis? Why the crisis? The crisis is that human existence, which is highly [developed], has been endangered by dogmas. Its very existence on the psychic level has been endangered by dogmas. On the physical level it may or may not be endangered, but on the psychic level there is danger. If you get guarantees on the physical level regarding eating and drinking, sleeping and getting shelter, that will not suffice. You want to be danger-free in the realm of your mind, in the realm of your intellect. You want unbarred, unobstacled psychic progress – intellectual progress. But certain dogmas with their devouring mouths are trying to eat you up.
Take for example communism, Marxism. It is such a dogma. It will not allow you to think beyond its periphery. So it is the duty of all intellectuals to make people conscious of their present and future and cautious of the all-devouring influence of dogma.
Yours is a path towards Supreme Bliss, and you will have to move forward towards the Universal Nucleus. Now, [so many plants and so many animals] have all got minds. I told you that in the case of undeveloped creatures, mind is inborn instinct, but in the case of human beings, mind remains an ever-expanding force. Everybody is moving, knowingly or unknowingly, with so many ideas, with so many feelings, with so many propensities, with so many desires. But each and every aspirant, each and every artist, each and every scientist and each and every philosopher must be ensconced in this supreme veracity – that they will have to be one with the Supreme, that each will have to coincide his or her microcosmic nucleus with the Macrocosmic one. And while moving towards this Macrocosmic Nucleus, no bar should be tolerated, no obstacle should be encouraged. Let there be an unbarred movement of humanity, let there be an unbarred progress of humanity. Humanity that knows no colour, no racial or [[blood]] barrier, no historical or traditional barrier. Human beings have got the same human legacy, and they must boldly stand upon that legacy and move forward with the banner of universal humanity.
[Following the discourse, the author gave a blessing:] Let everybody in the universe be happy. Let everybody in the universe be free from all ailments. Let everybody in the universe see the bright side of everything. Let nobody be forced to undergo suffering.
Footnotes
(1) An affectionate name for the author, used by the author’s disciples. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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I have spoken on many occasions and at various places about one thing – mental balance, or the state of mental equipoise. There is a saying by Lord Shiva that to attain complete success in life, the fourth principle is samatábháva, that is, mental equipoise, mental balance.(1) There must not be any complex in the mind – neither superiority complex nor inferiority complex.
Now, to bring about mental balance you should behave with every created being, every human being, in such a way that neither a superiority complex nor an inferiority complex develops in you or in those with whom you interact.
A complex of any sort is a psychic malady, a psychic disease. To consider oneself superior to others is a serious human mistake. Similarly, thinking oneself inferior to others is also a mistake. To suffer from an inferiority complex is also a psychic ailment. You must not encourage either a superiority complex or an inferiority complex. You must maintain a psychic balance, you must maintain a mental balance. That balanced mind will be able to move towards Parama Puruśa. That is why it has been said, Trńádapi suniicena(2) – “One should be humbler than the grass.” Usually the superiority [complex] is found more in humans than the inferiority complex. Even those who possess the mere knowledge of an alphabet feel themselves quite superior to those who are totally illiterate. This is a very usual thing. Hence one must remember the principle trńádapi suniicena.
Then, taroriva sahiśńuna [“you must be as tolerant as the trees”]. People should remember that a certain thing may hit another thing and may be hit back immediately by that second thing. But it is better to assimilate the opposing force. Suppose someone struck at you and you struck back. In this case you did not assimilate the striker’s blow into yourself, rather you returned it. Now if you are clever, you will tolerate a blow; and later, after assimilating it, you will strike back at the striker with greater intensity. It is as if a certain person shoots an arrow at someone. Now if the arrow is redirected towards the first person with the same speed and force, it is bound to produce a [great] effect. Hence it is said, “tolerate”.
To tolerate means to gauge your enemy’s strength as applied against you. You assimilate it: not that you tolerate it for the sake of toleration. Rather you tolerate it to contain yourself and to [control] your enemy. At the same time, your enemy’s strength is dwindling. Hence everyone needs to cultivate the power to tolerate [whatever] will be useful. That does not mean that you will continue to tolerate endlessly and ultimately invite death. So toleration for the sake of toleration is not an ideal habit, but toleration for assimilation and augmentation of strength is profitable.
Next, amániináḿ mánadena [“you must give respect to those whom no one respects”]. There are millions of people in the world. Ninety-nine per cent of them do not enjoy social prestige. There are three main factors due to which they are denied social prestige: First, society did not recognize them; society did not want to give them recognition. Secondly, as they are economically crippled, economically destroyed, they are forced to remain in perpetual subservience. Thirdly, a want of education, a want of knowledge, in them.
If you want someone [to be respected], you will have to provide him or her with these three things [recognition, economic self-sufficiency, education] simultaneously. Then only will you be able to give him or her respect. Giving respect to each and every human being is part and parcel of dharma.
If you want someone [to be respected], then arrange for their proper education, to increase their knowledge. Also see to it that they are socially elevated and economically self-sufficient and can hold their heads high in self-esteem.
No one is high or low from a caste point of view. Differentiations such as between Hindus and Muslims on the basis of religion are also despicable. Humans belong to one species, they are all children of God. Thus all should be accorded equal social prestige.
The third factor, as mentioned, is that you should look after their economic aspect, so that all get proper food and clothing, proper education and medical treatment – so that all can hold their heads high in honour and live like dignified human beings, without depending on the mercy of others.
So if you really want to give respect to humans, especially amániinám, those with no social prestige, then you are to arrange for their education, social standing and economic establishment.
Footnotes
(1) The author spoke on various occasions about the seven principles, or secrets, of success, the fourth of which is samatábháva. See, for example, “Hara’s Seven Secrets” in this book. –Eds.
(2) This refers to a shloka by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: Trńádapi suniicena taroriva sahiśńuna; / Amániináḿ mánadena kiirttaniyah sadá Harih – “You must be more humble than the grass and as tolerant as the trees. You must give respect to those whom no one respects, and always do kiirtana to the Lord.” –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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When I visited the WWD office, what did I say, what did I write?(1) Please read it out.
[Someone reads:] “You as the most dignified section of human society do something for the universal human beings.”
Why dignified? Everything should be properly explained and amplified. All human beings are minute projections of that same reflection on different plates, on different mirrors. And what are those mirrors? Unit minds. There are so many unit minds, and that reflected Supreme Being [in each case] is the [jiivátmá]. The unit mind is that mirror, and the reflected Parama Puruśa in the unit being is the jiivátmá, the unit’s átmá, the unit’s consciousness. So in that respect all are dignified and all are sanctified beings.
But you know, this sanctification or dignification is in the spiritual stratum; and so where this mundane stratum is concerned, dignity depends on sanctification [and service], and sanctity depends on something else. When people come in contact with a particular human being whose life has been elevated because of his or her movement towards the Supreme, then others look upon him or her as a sanctified being. As what? A sanctified being. And when, from that sanctified entity, or from that sanctified being, they get selfless service, then that sanctified being not only remains sanctified but becomes dignified too.
I addressed you little girls as the dignified section of human society, and I know I am cent per cent right in feeling so. And I expect these little dignified beings, dignified section of human society, will be – should be – more and more, and still more, dignified by dint of their work, their rendering of more and more selfless service to suffering humanity. This is what I want. That is why I wrote that.
[Leaving the audience hall the author added:] I hope my little girls are satisfied?
Footnotes
(1) Earlier on the same day the author had visited the Central Office of the Women’s Welfare Department of Ananda Marga in [[South End Park]], Calcutta. He had written in the visitor’s book the comment that follows. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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As you know regarding the innate longings, the mental longings, of each and every microcosm – each microcosm wants three things: first, it wants unbarred expansion, that is, expansion without any bar or hindrance; secondly, it wants to enjoy the divine flow – the supra-celestial flow; and thirdly, it wants to do something that may be relished and may create immense psychic pabula of a perennial order.
In the initial stage, in the first phase, of the march towards positivity from the supreme negativity – from the nadir of negativity towards the zenith [of positivity] – that seed of longing remains in dormant form. It sprouts slowly and takes the form of a big plant. This is the human being. And that is why I say that living beings and particularly human beings are more psychic than physical. The psychic existence of a human being is more important than and predominates over the physical structure. Actually, in the case of human beings, the physical structure is completely guided by psychic pabula and psychic longings. Unlike in other creatures, in human beings the mind has the dominant role.
If the object of ideation, the object of meditation, has no boundary, what will happen? The unit mind will be converted into the Infinite Mind, that is, the microcosm will be transmuted into the Macrocosm. That is the utility value of meditation. The unit creates a longing for Parama Puruśa, [the entity who] will satisfy all hungers, will quench all thirsts.…(1)
The simplest way to get cured of all psychic ailments is to use guru mantra(2) while performing every action, every mundane duty.
Subjectivated self – action – objectivated self. These are the three entities wherever something is done. Wherever there is any functional or actional expression, there must be these three entities.
Footnotes
(1) The ellipsis was in the original magazine publication of this discourse, perhaps indicating omitted material. (There may also have been more at the end of the actual discourse than appeared in the magazine.) –Eds.
(2) “Important” mantra, learned as a lesson of Ananda Marga meditation. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Each and every object of this universe, whether animate or inanimate, moves. Movement is not only the order of life, it is the order of the universe. Everything is moving. And in this created world, each and every being has something to do with the three fundamental relativities [time, place and person]. There cannot be any absolute cessation or absolute pause. Cessation is a relative phenomenon. Everything moves; this earth also moves. The sun with its planets, and all the stars, move. Nothing can be made stationary. Nothing is fixed.
Human beings are also moving. But wherever there is movement, there must be some goal. Goal-less movement is abuse of movement, abuse of rotation.(1) The unit mind, the mind of the microcosm, moves along its internal path [according to] its many desires, aspirations and instincts. And it will continue to move like this until the goal is reached. What is the goal?
Sarvájiive sarvasaḿsthe brhante
Tasmin haḿso bhrámyate Brahmacakre;
Prthagátmánaḿ preritáraiṋca matvá
Juśt́astatastenámrtatvameti.
–Yajurveda
[All unit entities, all unit structures, revolve around the Nucleus Consciousness in the Cosmic Cycle of creation. This rotation of theirs will continue as long as they think that they are separate from their Creator. When they become one with the Nucleus, they will attain immortality.]
“The movement is towards the Universal Hub. So many units, so many microcosms, attached to so many quinquelemental structures, are moving towards that Universal Hub.” They are moving knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or unconsciously. And a very, very few are engaged by the Cosmic centripetal force, or vidyá shakti in Sanskrit. When a microcosm moves with the aid of this centripetal force, what happens? The internal structure is metamorphosed into the Cosmic Soul. First its cruder [elements] get powdered down, then its quinquelemental expressions are metamorphosed into ectoplasmic structures, and finally those ectoplasmic structures are converted into cognition. At that time the unit cognition, detached from bases and crude entities, becomes one with the Supreme Cognitive Faculty. That stage is the state of salvation, the state of supreme emancipation.
Sarvájiive sarvasaḿsthe brhante [“All unit entities, all unit structures”]. These microcosms have different physical structures [and] different psycho-physical structures according to their reactive momenta. They are moving with so many thoughts, so many ideas, so many aspirations. Their movements come to an end when they come in closest contact with the Supreme Entity.
How does one come in closest contact with the Cosmological Mystery? The rśi [sage] says, juśt́astatastenámrtatvameti – “a microcosm does so when it feels that it is a blessed being, that it has been blessed – its existence has been blessed – by Parama Puruśa.”
Now, this movement is a phased path and there are four main phases. They are known as yatamána, vyatireka, ekendriya and vashiikára.
Yatamána: The microcosm wants to move forward. There are so many obstacles, so many mundane bondages, both external and internal. As you know, these internal bondages are known as ripus [enemies] and the external fetters are known as páshas [bondages]. One will have to look forward, [fighting] these internal and external bondages. [All those bondages on] the unit cognition are of baser nature. When a microcosm wants to move a step forward, so many inimical entities assemble and try to defeat that microcosm. So sádhaná requires a sort of fight, rather it is a fight, against all the [degenerating agencies]. In this first stage, the microcosm tries its best to fight against these internal and external enemies and tries to move forward. This stage is known as yatamána.
How does this fight take place? How can one fight against these enemies? Certainly one moves forward with the blessing of the Supreme. Without this blessing, one cannot move a step forward, because those inimical forces, those degrading forces, are very strong.
Vyatireka: The second phase is called vyatireka. The aspirant establishes his control [over] a particular internal or external enemy but [is] still defeated by certain desires. Suppose there is a man who never takes bribes. He has established his control over the propensity of lobha [greed]. But he may be addicted to drink, so there he is defeated. Or that man may be a miserly fellow. Again he is defeated. Or that man may have some special attraction to some house, land or other property. In this phase, one has established oneself [over] certain propensities or [over] certain degrading elements or enemies, but is defeated by some other elements or enemies. This second phase of human approach is called vyatireka. Here also one cannot move a step forward without the grace of the Supreme, because one’s fighting stamina gets inspiration from the Supreme.
Ekendriya: The third phase is ekendriya. In this phase, one establishes control over certain degrading propensities or over certain fetters related to a particular sensory or motor [indriya, or organ,] of one’s structure; but one is still defeated by other enemies related to other sensory or motor organs. For instance, a person may establish control over all the propensities related to the eyes or related to the tongue, but be defeated by other propensities related to the ears or the nose. He or she will not see anything bad because he or she has established control over his or her eyes, but will still be defeated by smell. The person is master over the taste or tactual organs, but is a slave to the smell organ or the ears. When that person gets the smell of, say, tea or coffee, he or she will ask for one cup. Here the person is defeated. Do you not feel like this [sometimes]? So this third phase is called ekendriya. One has established control over a particular indriya, or over a few indriyas, but not over all. This is called ekendriya.
Vashiikára: The fourth and final phase is vashiikára. When one establishes control over all the fifty controlling propensities of the human structure and also over all the motor and sensory organs, it is called vashiikára. When is this vashiikára stage [attained], and what does one do to [be established in it]? A person is established when that person establishes his or her proximity to the Universal Hub. He or she becomes one with the Supreme. This is the human approach towards the cognitive stance.
Now one must remember that during this movement on the path of righteousness, one needs stamina, needs vitality, and [for this] one gets inspiration from the Supreme Father, from Parama Puruśa. By His mercy one can [do] anything and everything. Without His mercy even a blade of grass cannot move.
In the history of our human society sometimes it so happens that a major portion of the people, [who used to get inspiration from their enviroment, cannot, due to the influence of antisocial elements,] get that inspiration. When such a situation is created, it is the duty of the nobler and better portion of the human race to guide others so that they may not feel any difficulty due to unfavourable environmental pressure. These people are the samája gurus [gurus of the society]. They help people at times of such adverse environmental conditions. But sometimes it so happens that the socio-spiritual and the psycho-physical environment gets so polluted that even those samája gurus can do nothing for the weak and suppressed mass. The mass becomes helpless. Then what to do? People must not feel afraid of such environments. Lord Krśńa said,
Yadá yadá hi dharmasya glánirbhavati Bhárata;
Cábhyutthánamadharmasya tadátmánaḿ srjámyáham.
–Bhagavad Giitá
[O Bhárata, at a time when dharma is distorted and adharma is ascendant, I create myself out of my own fundamental factors.]
“O Bhárata”. Here Bhárata means Arjuna. Bhara in Sanskrit is a root [verb] that means “to feed”, and ta means “that which helps you in your all-round development”, so bhárata(2) is the entity that feeds you and also helps you in your all-round development. And such a country is called “Bháratavarśa”. Varśa means country. This is the exact meaning of the name of this country [India]. This is the spirit of the land. Here Arjuna was a king and was addressed as king. That is why he was called Bhárata.
Whenever such an environmental degradation takes place, whenever the position of dharma is degraded, is degenerated, and goes below its normal standard, and the common people cannot get any help or any encouragement from the environment; when to become good is a crime, to become a moralist is foolishness; that is, when common people are not getting any encouragement from the environment and when hypocrisy is the biggest and highest qualification; then what is a common person to do? There the samája gurus will fail to help the mass. They fail to guide the mass because they also get degenerated. When the leadership is degenerated, the mass becomes blind. The blind cannot lead the blind. But the common people must remember that Parama Puruśa is always with them and will take the necessary steps under such [circumstances].
[Lord Krśńa said,] “When the leadership fails, I come. I come with the quinquelemental structure of a human being. I create Myself, make Myself.” So under no circumstances, under no environmental pressure, should a person be afraid or nervous, or encourage any sort of defeatist complex or complex of helplessness or hopelessness.
People under circumstantial pressures, under environmental pressures, [sometimes] resort to falsehood or resort to antisocial activities, but even their future is not blocked forever, not sealed forever. Lord Krśńa said,
[Api cet sudurácáro bhajate mámananyabhák;
So’pi pápavinirmuktah mucyate bhavabandhanát –
“If even the most wicked people worship Me with a concentrated mind, I will liberate them from the three bondages (physical, psychic and spiritual).”]
Footnotes
(1) The movement of a unit being in relation to the Supreme is often depicted as a rotation around the Supreme. The unit’s spiritual progress is depicted as decreasing the radius of its rotation. –Eds.
(2) Bhara + ta + the suffix an. Under Sanskrit grammatical rules the addition of an causes bharata to become bhárata. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF DEVOTEES
As mentioned in the Publisher’s Note, this appendix comprises ten discourses, most of them short, that were recovered in the form of typed notes; or in the form of typed transcripts of tapes where the original tape was no longer available to be checked. For more information regarding the sources of these discourses, please see their individual entries at the end of the Publisher’s Note.
Writers who wish to quote from these discourses should attribute the material to the “Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 appendix”.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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The subject matter of today’s discourse is “Principles and Practice of Philosophy and Cult”.
Where principles emerge out of long practice, they can be materialized with little effort by anyone who has the sincerity of purpose and will to do so. Such principles are empirical and bound to succeed in practice. (The time factor may, however, depend upon the intensity of the effort.) The following four circumstances determine whether a set of principles will prove true and be materialized.
(1) Hypocritical psychology. Some principles are ab initio insincere and produced with hypocritical mental effort. They are never meant to be put into practice, they are only intended to exploit a situation, or a sentiment of the masses, and meant to befool the masses only. In the distant past, in the Middle Ages, and in modern times as well, we find many such theories in all the countries of the world. Coated in sweet and beguiling language, they are intended to confuse and befool the masses.
The main reason for the depressed psychic condition of people’s minds today is such hypocritical psychological intellectual extravaganza of the ages.
Such theories exist in the social, the economic and various other fields of human activity. This is the main reason for the crisis of civilization today.
Take a few examples of such theories:
a. Mixed economy – This is a pure bluff. This will never achieve practical application. It is only intended to befool the ignorant masses.
b. Peaceful coexistence – between opposing ideologists has never happened nor will it ever come about.
c. Democratic socialism – is like saying a “stone made of gold”. Why call it gold when it is actually only stone.
There are many such theories circulating all over the world today. Human civilization is in danger because of them.
(2) The second situation is where hypocrisy is not at work, but what is at work is theoretical psychology. The people [involved], while making principles, are utterly oblivious of the realities of the world. They are wanderers in a vacuum, having no touch with the hard realities of the surface of the earth. Such theories shine like lighted moths for a moment and then are lost forever.
In India, for instance, such a theory is Gaotamiiya Nyáya Darshan. (This is not to be confused with the logic of Kanada.) The logic of Gaotamiiya Nyáya is purely imaginary. Such a theory cannot result in a practical cult.
Great logicians were born in the world in the past. Many in India wasted [valuable time discussing] whether oil in a pot should really be called “a pot with oil as its base” or “oil with a pot as its base”.
In Pathan India and the first portion of Mughal India there were big scholars versed in such logic. They were great intellectuals, but could not mould the life of the people with their theories. The intellectual life of the country [became] obsessed with these differing logics and there was no progress.
Pure logicians have another noticeable defect. They do not recognize that life is trifarious, that is, physical, intellectual and spiritual. They only emphasize the intellectual side and ignore the physical and spiritual aspects. As such they lack the [will] to put their theories into practice. They make no efforts in that direction.
(3) The third circumstance is inefficiency or lack of power to put a theory into practice. The theory may be sincere and true, but due to a lack of experience or other defects, it cannot be materialized.
In India in the great logic age, there were great yogis, personally highly evolved and advanced, but they could not make a society full of such individuals. When these people were defeated by Shankaracharya in discussion, there was created in India a great intellectual vacuum, which was very dangerous. This position lasted until the arrival of the great Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who restored confidence and a practical cult and outlook once again.
(4) Environmental difficulty. This is another instance of theories which do not lack sincerity, but which were framed in a particular mental environment which does not exist in the practical world. Such theories are all right as far as they go on the psychic plane, but as the environment where they operate is different from the environment envisaged at the time of their making, they fail to materialize.(1)
Footnotes
(1) The typed notes end here in the middle of a page. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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[Daevii hyeśá guńamayii mama Máyá duratyayá;
Mámeva ye prapadyante Máyámetáḿ taranti te.(1)
This Máyá of Mine is of the nature of three principles, and is almost insurmountable. Only those who take refuge in Me can overcome this Máyá.]
Lord Krśńa says that His Máyá, the force that creates confusion and distinctions, is very powerful, it is insurmountable by jiivas [living beings]. “But those who surrender unto Me transcend these forces of Mine with My help.”
If Máyá is more powerful than jiivas, will the children of God remain forever slaves of this force? Is there no hope? No, such a situation is becoming neither of God nor of His children.
The secret lies in the word “Mine”. “This binding force is Mine. I have used it for the play of My creation. Being Mine, it is within My control to withdraw it from all or any,” says the Lord. “Hence those who surrender to Me can easily surmount this force.”
But what is the correct way to surrender? Prayer? Asking God for this and for that? There the responsibility for what you ask is yours – you might ask for something very inferior, although you approach the All-Powerful for it. The best prayer therefore is, “O Lord, do whatever You think fit and best for me. I do not know in which way lies my good – You know.”
There was a demon who prayed that he might die neither during day nor during night. God granted the prayer and he was killed at sunset – twilight. Do not be foolish like this. As long as you pray, you are not surrendering, for you are requesting something for yourself. You are looking after yourself. True surrender is only looking after That.
God can remove Máyá from all, at one stroke. He has the power to do so. But that will finish His whole liilá [play] and this drama of creation. Therefore He removes it from individuals and not from all collectively.
For the good of human society, sádhakas [spiritual aspirants] will tell others also about the method of this surrender and make them men and women of God. Individual progress depends upon the social environment also, and hence the need for pracára [spiritual propagation].
Your present way of looking at things is defective. You are seeing many while there is only One alone.
[Author gives a demonstration and an avadhúta goes into samádhi.]
Both sádhaná and success are within your easy reach. The result is already secured with Me; I shall give it to you at the appropriate time. Do not bother about it.
Whether you are sinner or virtuous, those who come to God are all one for Him. He makes no distinctions. All will be liberated.
You are all my beloved sons and daughters. Sometimes I appear harsh to some. But that is for love. If I were indifferent, there would be no need for scolding or punishment.
I want to see you all laugh. It gives me great pleasure to see you laughing.
Leave all cares unto me. O be blessed.
Footnotes
(1) Bhagavad Giitá. –Trans.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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[The name] Amaránanda [Immortal Bliss] comes from a [not] + mara (meaning “that which dies, which is mortal”) [+ ánanda, bliss].
What is death? When we fail to find a link between the preceding form and the succeeding form, then we say that the preceding form has undergone death.
Suppose you return to some village where, twenty years before, you had been very fond of a boy of five years of age. No matter how much you search, you cannot find this five-year-old boy. Then you may say that the form of this boy of five died, but not that the boy died.
[Turning towards A–, Bábá(1) asks:] Little boy, do you recall what you were fifty years ago? [A– was in his twenties at the time of this talk.] You were a very young boy. And you died at the age of twenty-six or twenty-seven…
400 crores [4,000,000,000] of years ago this earth was created. 223 crores [2,230,000,000] of years ago it attained its present structure. But 800 crores [8,000,000,000] of years ago there was only a gaseous form. Wherever there is the time factor, space factor, or person factor, everything changes. And hence it is that things are temporary. (The root word of “temporary” is tempus, from which also the word “time” comes.)
What is time? Time is the mental measurement of the motivity of action. Wherever there is action, there is time.
23 June 1970, Ranchi
The Vedic language was a spoken language from 10,000 to 3000 BCE. When the Aryans came to India there were so many languages spoken by the Austrics, Mongolians(2) and Dravidians. After several centuries, both racial and lingual blending had taken place.
The Vedas were the only books composed – not written, as the Aryans [had no script] – in the Vedic language. This language underwent change and metamorphosis according to local changes and [the influence of] local languages, and developed into Prákrta of one type in the Punjab, of another in Bengal, another in South India, etc. – all in all seven Prákrtas in seven portions [of the Indian subcontinent] spoken by the general public. When the Aryans came to India they learned how to write, and thus wrote books in a modified Prákrta having close proximity to the Vedic language – it was known as Sanskrit. [Here Bábá traces the development of a few words.]
Language changes due to environmental change and also due to change in race. Certain sounds cannot be pronounced by some races. [Bábá gives some examples.] Soil also has an effect. No pronunciation is good or bad; all are natural for a particular [time], for a particular land. Sanskrit has four recognized pronunciations.
Human civilization is not one flower, but a beautiful garden with innumerable flowers of so many scents and so many varieties.
[At this point Bábá asks many of the sádhakas in the audience if a flower is “sweet-scenting” or “sweet-scented”.]
“Little boy, stand up.” [Indicating A–, who is English-speaking. A– can give no definite answer either, much to his embarrassment. Bábá notes that a flower is “sweet-scenting”, because it has its own fragrance, but a handkerchief is “sweet-scented”. Finally Bábá observes:] “English is a very rich and very expressive language, perhaps the most expressive language of the modern world.”
We should take proper care of this garden of civilization – we must take proper care of each and every flower. If we do not do this there will be clashes, there will be imperialism. The owner of a piggery should not be allowed to use this garden – the immoral pigs will uproot the trees and everything will be destroyed.
[At the end of the discourse Bábá mentions that there are twenty-eight recognized stars along the path of the sun – and proceeds to name them. Then Bábá talks about collections of stars, about zodiacs. Bábá concludes:] But what is the use of knowing all this? Know One, know all… or should we say, “No one knows all” – ? [All laugh, and Bábá leaves the room amid namaskárs.]
24 June 1970, Ranchi
Mokśa [non-qualified liberation, salvation] means one is liberated permanently; mukti [emancipation] may be temporary.
Of the cakras, or plexi, the uppermost is the sahasrára [corresponding to the pineal gland]. The seed of omniscience lies in the pineal. The mind has fifty propensities or [modes] of mental expression. These may be expressed internally [mentally] and externally [physically]. And this expression may be in ten directions – through the five sensory and five motor organs. Thus the total expressions of the mind are 50 x 2 x 10 = 1000. The sahasrára cakra controls these thousand expressions, and hence it has been called the thousand-petalled lotus.
The ájiṋá cakra [pituitary gland] is the controlling point of the conscious mind, and indirectly of the subconscious mind. Thus in your Iishvara prańidhána(3) you first concentrate on the pituitary to control the conscious mind.
At the navel plexus, sub-glands of the pancreas control ten propensities. Thus, [peevishness] [Bábá indicates a point in the upper left part of the navel area], shyness [lower right], fear [lower left], thirst for intellectual knowledge [location not recorded], etc.
All machines are guided by subtle rules. Glands are the media for expression of the propensities.
Each hormone has its own taste. The divine nectar of the pineal gland is very tasty and it cannot be imagined by taking any drug. It is very intoxicating – then and there samádhi. It cannot be approximated by any drug… and it won’t weaken the liver! (Shiva is pictured as being in trance – because of the divine nectar He would at times be in trance all twenty-four hours – drinking the internal wine!)
[Bábá looks at a sádhaka and tells him to sit with his spine straight. He touches the sádhaka on the head and the sádhaka falls backward, seemingly senseless. The sádhaka is carried out of the room. Bábá remarks:] Tried to give that boy the taste, couldn’t do it, he should do more sádhaná.
Naturally a spiritual aspirant should not take drugs. It is against the very idea of spirituality as it weakens one’s control over mind and body. Ananda Margis should also try to avoid a non-vegetarian diet – though this is not an order, it is advice.
25 June 1970, Ranchi
Chinese youth are very interested in Ananda Marga, but they do not get scope. There are those who do not want the propagation of Ananda Marga philosophy – which shows that they are afraid of the philosophy. Truth must be revealed, truth cannot be repressed.
What are the causes of salvation? Átmajiṋána [self-knowledge] is the only requisite for the attainment of mokśa. (The knowledge that “I am Brahma” is also known as pańd́a, and one having this pańd́a is a pańd́ita.)
Of the living creatures, only the human – one having a human body, human glands, etc. – can attain mokśa. If one does not take proper care to attain mokśa, then one is a foolish person, for one is not making proper utilization of one’s human potentialities.
Knowledge acquired from without is always materialistic knowledge, and is dependent on so many factors. There must be proper radiation of the sensory vibrations,(4) proper functioning of the sensory organ, proper condition of the nerves, nerve-fluid, brain cells, etc. If there be any defect in any of these, knowledge will be defective. But átmajiṋána is obtained from within and is always perfect. It is not dependent on any organs, not even on the nerve-fibres. Everything is within. You hear with internal ears and see with internal eyes. For materialistic research you depend on the thought-waves of the conscious and subconscious. But for self-realization you do not even depend on the mind! It is something within, your personal property. Nothing else can be your personal property, for you will have to quit everything except the Supreme.
Suppose a man has a superiority complex about his intellectual knowledge, then the Lord may take it away.
[Bábá requests an avadhúta(5) sitting before Him to do sádhaná. Then Bábá asks him to start counting. The avadhúta complies: “… five, six, seven…”] Now the Lord is taking away his power to think… [“… eight… nine… ten…”] Now the Lord has taken it away.
[In the dead silence that follows, Bábá interjects:] But it will return in fifteen minutes or so.
[Bábá turns to A–: “And you, little boy,” Bábá says with a twinkle in the eye, “is that your shirt?” “No, Bábá!”(6) comes the quick reply.]
One acquires worldly knowledge with the help of the mind, and that mind is not a permanent asset. The Supreme Father is your only asset – no power in this universe can detach you from that asset!
26 June 1970 evening, Ranchi
The entire human society is of a cosmopolitan nature – nothing can be treated as being indigenous to this group or that. The world is fast moving toward cosmopolitanism, and none will be able to maintain their national characters. The big towns have already become cosmopolitan. Just as the mixture of the English, the Spanish, the French and so on gave rise to the culture of America, similarly a cosmopolitan blending is taking place. Cultural blending is going on throughout the world. No group of people or nation will be able to maintain its speciality – the political entities are trying hard to maintain these specialities, but they will not be able to. During a time of flood, ponds, streams, lakes, oceans all become one; similarly, culture will become one.
29 June 1970 morning, Ranchi
Human philosophy is to help human development in all respects; it must not be just a philosophy of logicians. Logicians’ philosophy only teaches you how to kill time in gossiping. Thus in ancient India two philosophers once spent three days arguing about whether sound was created before or after a palmyra [fruit] strikes the ground – and at the end of the three days, both were killed by the [fruits] falling from the palmyra tree above them! This is the fate of logicians – their philosophy has no practical value.
Similarly, some have come forth with the philosophy that the world is illusion. The philosopher Shankaracharya said that the world doesn’t exist. Once when he was attacked by an ox and was fleeing away, he was questioned by a follower, “But is not the ox an illusion? And if so, why are you fleeing away?” To which the philosopher replied, “But my fleeing away – that is also an illusion!” These philosophies are hypocrites’ philosophies – utopian ideals.
According to Ananda Marga, this world is not an absolute reality, rather it is a relative reality that exists through change, as a passing show. But we cannot say it is an illusion. The universe lives through change.
29 June 1970 evening, Ranchi
In Sanskrit there are two terms for the play of Parama Puruśa: (1) kriid́á – where the play can be grasped by human psychic faculties; and (2) liilá – where no rational explanation can be given by the intellect, where the causal factor is beyond the reach of the intellect.
Whatever we see and can be grasped is in the scope of kriid́á. In the case of kriid́á, also, the causal factor comes within liilá – we may know the cause, but the cause of the cause we do not know. That subtlest causal factor of mind is certainly the effect of something – but it is beyond human intellect. Where you do not exist, how can you find the cause of something?
14 July 1970 morning, Ranchi
Parama Puruśa can do everything except two things: (1) He cannot create another God; (2) He cannot hate others – He does not have the right or capacity to. Because He cannot hate Himself; and there is no second person, no second object.
Those people who support caste, creed, etc. – they hate Parama Puruśa. By hating the microcosm, they hate the Macrocosm that the microcosm is an expression of. Suppose Mr. X hates others, while Mr. Y does not hate others – is Mr. Y praiseworthy? No. Not to hate others is doing something natural, it is not to be praised. To hate, however, is unnatural and is to be condemned.
Satan cannot remain in the universe, because if the existence of Satan is recognized, then he becomes a second God. Satan is only temporary, for he does not have the attributes of the Absolute; rather he is nothing but human intellect propelled by depraving tendencies. If these tendencies are diverted properly, they no longer exist – it is within your power to kill that Satan.
You can perhaps see how the scripture-holder priests inject fear complex into the general public.
14 July 1970 evening
Footnotes
(1) An affectionate name for the author, used by the author’s disciples. –Eds.
(2) Since in ancient times Mongolia was an empire, and symbolized all of North and Northeast Asia, “Mongolian” here means the Oriental, or yellow, race. –Eds.
(3) Literally, “surrender to the Cosmic Controller”; a lesson of Ananda Marga sádhaná. –Eds.
(4) The tanmátras. –Eds.
(5) Literally, “one who is thoroughly cleansed mentally and spiritually”; a monk or nun of an order close to the tradition of Shaeva Tantra. –Eds.
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Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30 | |
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Let the word “desideratum” be used in the singular number. We will not use the word “desiderata”, the plural of “desideratum”, for humans have only one goal, not many.(1)
You have just said, Bábá kii jaya!(2) But I say, “Victory unto you!” As human beings, as spiritualists, as spiritual missionaries, when you will be victorious, you will be happy – but happier will I be, many times more.
Whatever object or idea there is in this relative world, there is a reason behind it. The reason may be known to you or may not be known to you, but there is a reason. When you get quite tired of worldly activities and sit in a lonely place, you think, “Why have I come into this world?” You might not know the reason, but He, the one who has manifested His liilá [play] everywhere, knows the reason. You might consider yourself inferior, but you are not so to Him.
Take, for example, your body, your mind, and the innumerable tiny cells of your body. Each cell gives rise to a particular thought. Such specialities there are in the human structure! The Creator has created this body carefully, with the utmost care; He even knows where a particular spot in your nerve is. You are not small. A doll may consider itself small, and it may be considered small by some, but the creator of the doll would never consider his creation valueless.
All that comes within the scope of relativity has a reason behind its existence. Even the existence of an eighty-year-old man or woman has a reason behind it. Parama Puruśa has kept you in the world; there is definitely a reason behind it. Never let inferiority arise in you. You are the children of Parama Puruśa – how can you be inferior? If someone says that you are low, or valueless, that will be absolutely wrong. Parama Puruśa, your Creator, is a great entity. How can He create anything inferior?
Many say that nature creates. But this is wrong. What can nature create? The style, the system in which Prakrti [the Operative Principle] operates is known as nature. There is a style of singing, of dancing; there is a style for doing each and every action. The style of the work of the Operative Principle is known as nature. How can the style create? Only the One whose style it is can create. Nature can do nothing. The Operative Principle operates according to the desire of Parama Puruśa. If Parama Puruśa did not permit it, then Prakrti would be unable to create. Ábrahmastamba – “Even a blade of grass would not move. Right from Brahmá to a blade of grass, it is all His desire.”
Brahmá means the stage of Saguńa Brahma when It is creating the universe. (Brahma + a equals Brahmá. A is the acoustic root of creation.) Brahmá, Viśńu, Maheshvara – these are not separate entities, they are all different functional forms of the same entity. A gentleman is a sweet-shop owner, a traveller and a man with a [cricket] bat – he is the same gentleman at different stages. Even Brahmá would be unable to create if He [Parama Puruśa] would not want. And the little blade of grass too would not move.
So forget the talk about nature. To talk of nature is to talk of a philosophy of [the time] when humans worshipped stones, trees, etc.
Without His desire, nothing will happen. Say you are speaking against Parama Puruśa in a meeting. You might want to say, “I challenge Parama Puruśa.” But after only having spoken the word “challenge” you might find that your raised fist remains raised and your voice is choked. Nothing can happen without His desire.
You have come according to His wish, and by no one else’s. Leave everything to Him. An astrologer predicts your death on a particular day, and advises you to wear lockets to counteract the effects of stars and planets. But doesn’t the astrologer himself die?
You will live according to His desire; you will die, too, according to His desire. Yesterday I told you to take the name of one only. Today I tell you to depend on one only, not on two. Death will not be painful for you, because in death too you attain Him. Merge with Him with all your love.
He has given you your organs. Utilize them for Him. With your voice sing His name, His praise, His kiirtana. With your mind think of Him.
One who does not do this wastes one’s life. And where people have only human frame but not human mind, tell them this message. Go to village after village, town after town. This is your duty.
Footnotes
(1) The previous day the author had given the discourse “Desideratum of Human Life” (Subháśita Saḿgraha Part 19). –Eds.
(2) “Victory unto Bábá!” “Bábá” was the affectionate name used for the author by the author’s disciples. –Eds.
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The demarcation between right and wrong, sin and piety, dos and don’ts, exists only for those who are not true devotees. True devotees can think only of Parama Puruśa – their every action is to please Parama Puruśa. For them, there is only sádhaná and selfless service to the universe – and because selfless service is to please the Lord, that also helps sádhaná. Tapah [selfless service] is part of sádhaná. True devotees are unable to think of right and wrong, but because they wish only to please Parama Puruśa, they can only do good, all their actions will be benevolent. So you are not just to worry about right and wrong, about dos and don’ts – you are to develop that true devotion for Parama Puruśa.
There is a story about Lord Krśńa, that he became very ill and a great number of doctors come to cure Him, but all with no success. The followers of Lord Krśńa became agitated and prayed to Him that He direct them how to cure Him. Whereupon Lord Krśńa declared, “When my true devotee comes to me with the dust from his feet, and when I touch that dust, that will be my cure.” The followers were taken aback – they could not think of doing such a thing – to have Lord Krśńa touch their dirty feet! Yet when a town urchin heard of this he came forward with the reply, “I do not know if I am a true devotee of Lord Krśńa, but I do love Lord Krśńa and if the dust of my feet will cure Him, I am most glad to oblige Him.”
Such is the true devotee, and such devotion you are all to develop, through your sádhaná and your service. But of course, until you develop such devotion, you must distinguish what to do from what not.
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Your every action should be with Parama Puruśa. Without Him, your actions are as nothing, no matter how great they may seem. Yet if you do even a little with Him, you will have done a lot. He is like the number one, your actions are like zeros. If you take the One (1) first and to that One perform your actions, it is like adding zeros to the 1, it is like multiplying by ten with each action. But if that One is not there, your zeros are added to each other and the net result can only be zero.
So go on multiplying; let not all be zero. You have taken a human form to realize Him, let not your life be wasted.
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The shástras [scriptures] say:
Sarvatah páńipádantat sarvato’kśishiromukham;
Sarvatah shrutimalloke sarvamávrtya tiśt́hati.
[His hands and feet are everywhere; His eyes, heads and faces are everywhere; His ears are everywhere; He exists enveloping everything.]
The palms – páńi – of the Lord are everywhere – sarvatah. Whatever is offered to Him, good or bad, He receives. And whenever and wherever it is offered to Him, He receives it.
Scriptures say that the ordinary human beings of the world use their power of discrimination before they decide upon what to receive and what not to receive when offered. They accept only that which they like and reject that which they do not like. Elevated beings – uttama puruśa – on the other hand, do not accept anything from anyone. But Parama Puruśa is entirely different from these two groups. He makes no discrimination whatever and accepts all that is offered to Him by any of His children.
People normally offer sentient things to different deities – white flowers are generally offered to them. But to Shiva many offer even red flowers such as the java, or Chinese rose, which is a flower of támasika [static] colour.(1) This is because Lord Shiva, Parama Puruśa, has His palms ready to receive anything and everything. One may offer one’s reverence – shraddhá – or one’s abuse – hela. The Lord’s palms are ever-joined to receive it – Shraddhayá helaya vá [“With reverence or with indifference”].
Once Lord Buddha was camping in a mango orchard at Baishali. A large number of people used always to [come and] accept the path shown by the Lord. But a particular individual and his group were very much opposed to Lord Buddha. It so happened that the group, without the individual himself, came to the mango orchard where Lord Buddha was camping, and were influenced by the Lord and accepted Buddhism.
This news greatly agitated this man, and in anger he came to the orchard and started abusing Lord Buddha in all sorts of ways. Lord Buddha maintained his usual equipoise towards all this. One feels happy and encouraged in abusing someone only if he or she finds that person affected by the acts of abuse. This man found Lord Buddha undisturbed and was greatly disappointed, finding all his hard labour gone to waste. When he had done all the abusing [he could] for quite some time and his stock of bad words might have been coming to an end, the Lord urged the man to listen to him.
Lord Buddha asked the man, “Suppose you give something to somebody which he accepts; then the ownership of the thing is transferred to the receiver, isn’t it?” The man agreed. The Lord continued, “And if the man rejects the offering, will not the thing be returned to its owner?” The man again agreed. Lord Buddha concluded, “All the words given by you have not been accepted by me!”
But the Lord [Parama Puruśa] has His palms ever ready to accept all that is offered by His children anywhere in the world. The palms of human beings are so small – they can receive and contain so little. Their palms simply cannot receive more than this [indicates]. But the palms of the Lord are large enough to receive any quantity from all His children at the same time.
The Lord’s feet (pada) are also everywhere. There is no place which is inaccessible to Him. If a person is at a particular place and has to move to some other place, he or she will have to travel. But the Lord is everywhere, and He in reality does not have to move. In other words, He has so many feet that He is able to reach any place and be available at all places at all times. Elsewhere, scriptures say:
Tadejati tannaejati taddúre tadvantike
Tadantarasya sarvasya tadu sarvasyásya váhyatah.
[The Supreme Entity moves; the Supreme Entity is unmoving. The Supreme Entity is far, far away; no, the Supreme Entity is the nearest entity. He is the inside of everything; He is also the outside of everything.]
None of His children are ever alone. The Lord is ever with them at all moments.
Sarvato’kśi – “the Lord has His eyes – akśi – everywhere also.” The word akśa has two letters, a and kśa. From a to kśa, in the Nagari system of letters, there are fifty letters. These letters are the acoustic roots of the fifty propensities through which human beings function. The different sounds are only a mixture and combination in varying degrees of these acoustic vibrations. So in other words, akśa represents the whole set of the vibrations; that is, the creation. Since we see this creation with our eyes, the eye in Sanskrit is called akśi. The pronunciation of this word as per the Tantric and the [Yajurvedic] system would be akkhi.
The Lord’s eyes are everywhere. His eyes are even in a closed room where one may consider himself or herself alone. The story goes that once Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa gave a pigeon to Swami Vivekananda asking him to kill the bird in a place where he was alone. At the end of the day Swami Vivekananda returned along with the living pigeon and reported to Sri Ramakrishna that he could not find himself alone anywhere because wherever he went he found a pair of eyes – the Lord’s – watching him.(2)
Footnotes
(1) It is reddish-black. –Eds.
(2) The typed notes end here at the end of a page. (I.e., at a point where the author has not yet explained the entire shloka.) –Eds.
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What is the goal of human life? A person should love – what? Parama Puruśa, or occult power? If one gains occult power, one may do so many things. In the third stage of sádhaná,(1) a sádhaka gets some occult power. And after getting the occult power, suppose that he or she becomes engaged with that occult power, he or she wants to display that occult power. What will happen? He or she will fall down. He or she will be nowhere. He or she will not remain a sádhaka. So in that stage, in the third stage, one will have to be very, very cautious. And even with those occult powers [one should say], “I want Parama Puruśa, not the occult powers.” Do you follow?
Mother is cooking and little baby is there crying. “Ma! Ma!” he is crying. What will the mother do in such a case? She will give a toy to that little baby and again start her duty, her cooking duty. But the baby is quite intelligent and says, “No! I don’t want this toy, I want you!” Then what is the mother to do? She will have to do like this [imitating a mother cuddling a baby in her arms]. It is the mother, and not the toy, that the intelligent baby wants. Similarly, an occult power is just like a toy. If Parama Puruśa gives you a toy, what are you to say? “Oh, ah, very good, very good!” – ? No, you are to say, “I don’t want it, I want You.” What are you to say? “I don’t want the toy, I want the Maker of the toy.” So you see the third stage of sádhaná(2) is a great [test]. You will have to select between occult powers and Parama Puruśa.
What will you [looking at one particular disciple] do in that case, in that third stage of sádhaná? Will you will choose occult powers, for people to say, “Oh, D– is a supernatural man! D–, you’re a great yogi! You have so much power!” Will you do like this? No, no, you want [Parama Puruśa]. And you…? [asking various disciples] And you…? Don’t you want occult powers? No, you do not want occult powers. That is [right]. “I don’t want occult powers, I want the Lord of occult powers.”
In society those who have no knowledge, little knowledge, regarding spirituality, think occult power is everything. But those who are actually elevated persons [consider such power] meaningless. When a sádhaka wants occult power from Parama Puruśa, he or she may or may not get occult power, but it is sure he or she will not get Parama Puruśa, because he or she did not want Parama Puruśa. He or she wanted occult powers, so he or she may or may not get occult powers, but he or she will not get Parama Puruśa. Be very strict in this respect.
[The author paused and looked very slowly and intently at almost everyone in the room. There was absolute silence.]
Do you follow?
[Addressing one disciple:] V–K–, stand up. Do you want occult powers? You don’t want occult powers? Then you are not an “intelligent” fellow if you don’t want occult powers! You don’t want to be that type of intelligent, eh?
Do meditation on occult powers and see if you are getting any – what shall I say – ánandam [bliss] or not. Ahhh. Now meditation on Parama Puruśa – don’t disturb him please – meditate on Parama Puruśa. [V–K–, in trance, raised his head back.] Certainly you are getting ánandam. [V–K–’s head went higher, his back arched.] Try to be with Parama Puruśa. Go inner and inner… [V–K–’s hands rose up shoulder height, then higher and higher, outstretched and quivering]… inner and inner… inner and inner… [V–K– groaned with ecstatic feeling] … inner and inner… [V–K– moaning]… inner and inner … [V–K– moans very intense]… be with Parama Puruśa… go inner and inner… inner and inner. [V–K– gasped and fell backwards in samádhi (ecstatic trance) and into another disciple’s lap.]
Don’t disturb him. He wanted Parama Puruśa. So, if you want to get occult powers, go outer and outer; if you want Parama Puruśa, go inner and inner and inner and inner.
You should always remember this. Do not be after occult powers, be after Parama Puruśa. Occult powers, like all other powers, are transitory, temporary in nature, not permanent in nature. As soon as you die, occult powers will also be taken away from you. But Parama Puruśa will remain with you even at that time, for that property is of a permanent nature.
Occult power is an ordinary power. The general public does not possess that ordinary power, that is why they think it is a supernatural power, is occult power. Gold is an ordinary metal, but because it is a bit rare, it is costly. Otherwise machines, spades, tractors would have been manufactured with the help of – what? Gold, not iron. Gold is an ordinary metal. It is just like that. Occult power is an ordinary power. People say it is supernatural. There is nothing supernatural in this world. Everything is natural. But because it is a bit rare, people say it is supernatural.
Do you children want occult power? Or [pointing to V–K–, still in samádhi] do you want to be a “fool” like that one?
Footnotes
(1) For the four stages of sádhaná, see “The Phases of Human Approach” in this book, and the book Stages of Psycho-Spiritual Sádhaná as included in Ananda Marga Philosophy in a Nutshell Parts 5 and 6. –Eds.
(2) For the four stages of sádhaná, see “The Phases of Human Approach” in this book, and the book Stages of Psycho-Spiritual Sádhaná as included in Ananda Marga Philosophy in a Nutshell Parts 5 and 6. –Eds.
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An action may be treated as “finality” if it satisfies the following conditions: (1) it has been fully complied with, and (2) the result of the compliance is in hand. [This is “finality”, or “completion”.](1)
We repeat siddha mantra (Bábá náma kevalam) to different tunes.(2) What is the [completion] of it? Let us take an example. I cross the threshold, and as a result of it I enter the room. The utterance, internal or external, of the first syllable of a mantra is like crossing the threshold and entering a new world. The proper accomplishment of work after entering the new [world] culminates in a result which gives a feeling of bliss and perfection. This feeling is an embodiment of pleasure.
In day-to-day life, we first inhale and then exhale. The mantra is repeated according to the syllabic rhythm of inhalation and exhalation. This act of breathing in the mundane sphere has no end in individual life. Breathing is an action, so a living being is always engaged in some sort of action. This constant effort is known as yatamána. This is the first stage of progress. In the second stage, one wants to rise high with the firm determination to achieve one’s goal. And while doing so one is in a position to have control over some or other of his or her mental propensities for some time, but has no control over the other propensities at all. This stage is known as vyatireka. In this stage one achieves concentration for some time and then again loses it.
Then comes ekendriya, which is the third stage of progress in sádhaná. This is the stage when one has control over a particular mental propensity, and that control is more lasting. Due to constant repetition, the mantra is sounding in one’s ear. While sitting in meditation, a sádhaka can see his or her Iśt́a moving around him or her, and the fragrance of sandalwood or rose comes from the body of the Iśt́a. Sometimes one gets it and sometimes one does not get it.
The fourth stage is known as vashiikára. There one is established in the ideation of Parama Puruśa, to satisfy whom one is doing kiirtana. Here one completely surrenders himself or herself before Parama Puruśa, and he or she is under the complete control of Parama Puruśa.
So there are four stages – four stages once at the time of inhalation and four stages again at the time of exhalation.
So in all there are eight facets, and a siddha mantra must necessarily have eight syllables – it must be aśt́ákśarii,(3) [just as] each and every syllable of an Iśt́a mantra has got its own importance. Bábá náma kevalam is a siddha mantra. When the first syllable bá is uttered, the feeling should be, “I am crossing the threshold and entering the new world;” and when the last syllable ma is uttered, the feeling should be, “I have accomplished my duty.” If the kiirtana is done with these feelings, within two or three minutes the effect will come into play.
The whole siddha mantra should be uttered fully in each phrase of the tune – Bábá náma kevalam – and not a part of it – while doing kiirtana. If this is not done, the kiirtana cannot be said to be a perfect kiirtana. Everything must be done in a methodical way. Then you will enjoy and get the [completion] of kiirtana properly.
Footnotes
(1) Sanskrit equivalent of “completion” that was unclear in the typed notes omitted here. –Eds.
(2) When Bábá náma kevalam is sung to a tune, an extra vowel is added to kevalam for the sake of the tune – kevalama. With this addition the mantra has eight syllables, a point that will be discussed below. –Eds.
(3) Eight-syllabled. –Eds.
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I exist, my Lord exists, and my search for His glamour, my search for His grandeur, is never-ending. I am moving unto Him, moving along a never-ending path. This search for the Great by the little is called mysticism. The fundamental point of spirituality depends on this mysticism. And when this mysticism, this outward existence of mysticism, coincides with the inner spirit of mysticism, the goal is reached: the unit becomes Cosmic.
And for the attainment of this status we have come here. We have come to this world, so our lives are not meaningless. Our everything is meaningful; and by our knowledge, by our action and by our sincerity, we will be increasing our meaningfulness from unit to Infinite.
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ÁCÁRYA m. or ÁCÁRYÁ f. Spiritual teacher qualified to teach all lessons of meditation.
ÁNANDA. Divine bliss.
ANANDA MARGA. Path of divine bliss; Ánanda Márga Pracáraka Saḿgha (Ananda Marga organization).
ÁTMÁ, ÁTMAN. Soul, consciousness, PURUŚA, pure cognition. The átman of the Cosmos is PARAMÁTMAN, and that of the unit is the jiivátman.
AVIDYÁ. Ignorance; centrifugal, or extroversial, force; force of repulsion from the Nucleus Consciousness; aspect of the Cosmic Operative Principle which guides movements from the subtle to the crude. See also VIDYÁ.
AVADHÚTA m. or AVADHÚTIKÁ f. Literally, “one who is thoroughly cleansed mentally and spiritually”; a monk or nun of an order close to the tradition of Shaeva Tantra.
BÁBÁ. Affectionate name for Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti.
BRAHMA. Supreme Entity, comprising both PURUŚA, or Shiva, and PRAKRTI, or Shakti.
CAKRA. Cycle or circle; psycho-spiritual centre, or plexus. The cakras in the human body are all located along the suśumná canal which passes through the length of the spinal column and extends up to the crown of the head. Some cakras, however, are associated with external concentration points. The concentration points for the cakras: (1) for the múládhára cakra, the base of the spine, above the perineum; (2) for the svádhiśt́hána, the base of the genital organ; (3) for the mańipura, the navel; (4) for the anáhata, the mid-point of the chest; (5) for the vishuddha, the throat; (6) for the ájiṋá, between the eyebrows; and (7) for the sahasrára, the crown of the head.
CITTA. Done “I”, objective “I”, objective mind, mind-stuff.
DHARMA. Characteristic property; spirituality; the path of righteousness in social affairs.
INDRIYA. One of the five sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) or five motor organs (hands, feet, vocal cord, genital organ and excretory organ). The eye indriya (for example) comprises the eye itself, the optical nerve, the fluid in the nerve, and the location in the brain at which the visual stimulus is transmitted to the ectoplasm, or mind-stuff.
JIIVÁTMÁ. See ÁTMÁ.
KIIRTANA. Collective singing of the name of the Lord, sometimes combined with a dance that expresses the spirit of surrender.
LAOKIK. “Of the people”, created relatively recently out of popular sentiment and not found in the scriptures.
MAHÁBHÁRATA. “Great India”; the name of a military campaign guided by Lord Krśńa around 1500 BCE to unify India; the epic poem written by Maharshi Vyasa about this campaign.
MANTRA. A sound or collection of sounds which, when meditated upon, will lead to spiritual liberation. A mantra is incantative, pulsative, and ideative.
MARGI. A member of Ananda Marga.
MOKŚA. Spiritual emancipation, non-qualified liberation.
NAMASKÁR. A greeting in which the palms are held together and the thumbs touch first between the eyebrows (indicating the concentration of thoughts or goodwill) and then the mid-point of the chest (indicating the sweetness of sentiment). “I pay respect to the Supreme Entity residing within you.”
OṊM, OṊḾKÁRA. The sound of the first vibration of creation; the biija mantra (acoustic root) of the expressed universe. Oṋḿkára literally means “the sound oṋm”.
PARAMA PURUŚA. Supreme Consciousness.
PARAMÁTMÁ, PARAMÁTMAN. Supreme Consciousness in the role of witness of His own macropsychic conation. Paramátman comprises: (1) PURUŚOTTAMA, the Macrocosmic Nucleus; (2) Puruśottama’s association with all creation in His extroversive movement (prota yoga); and (3) Puruśottama’s association with each unit creation individually (ota yoga) and (4) with all collectively (prota yoga) in His introversive movement.
PRAKRTI. Cosmic Operative Principle.
PURÁŃA. Mythological story with a moral import; educative fiction.
PURUŚA. Consciousness.
PURUŚOTTAMA, PARAMASHIVA. The Nucleus Consciousness, the witness of saiṋcara (extroversion from the Nucleus) and pratisaiṋcara (introversion to the Nucleus).
QUINQUELEMENTAL. Composed of the ethereal, aerial, luminous, liquid and solid factors, or elements.
SÁDHAKA. Spiritual practitioner.
SÁDHANÁ. Literally, “sustained effort”; spiritual practice; meditation.
SÁDHU. Virtuous person, spiritual aspirant. See also SÁDHAKA.
SAHASRÁRA. See CAKRA.
SAMÁDHI. “Absorption” of the unit mind into the Cosmic Mind (savikalpa samádhi) or into the ÁTMAN (nirvikalpa samádhi).
SAḾSKÁRA. Mental reactive momentum, potential mental reaction.
SHÁSTRA. Scripture.
SHIVA. A great Tantric guru of 5000 BCE who guided society while His mind was absorbed in Consciousness.
SHLOKA. A Sanskrit couplet expressing one idea.
SHRUTI. Literally, “ear”; hence, a composition learned by hearing (before the invention of script).
TANMÁTRA. Literally, “minutest fraction of that,” i.e., of a given rudimental factor of matter. Also translated “generic essence” or “inferential wave”. The various types of tanmátras convey the senses of hearing, touch, form (vision), taste and smell.
TANTRA. A spiritual tradition which originated in India in prehistoric times and was first systematized by SHIVA. It emphasizes the development of human vigour, both through meditation and through confrontation of difficult external situations, to overcome all fears and weaknesses. Also, a scripture expounding that tradition.
VEDA. Literally, “knowledge”; hence, a composition imparting spiritual knowledge. Also, a religious or philosophical school which originated among the Aryans and was brought by them to India. It is based on the Vedas and emphasizes the use of ritual to gain the intervention of the gods.
VIDYÁ. Centripetal, or introversial, force; force of attraction to the Nucleus Consciousness; aspect of the Cosmic Operative Principle which guides movements from the crude to the subtle. See also AVIDYÁ.
YOGA. Spiritual practice leading to unification of the unit ÁTMAN with PARAMÁTMAN.