E. DISCRIMINATION
Thrice blessed are those who having chosen this glorious spiritual path are pursuing it with diligence, sincerity and deep earnestness, not allowing themselves to be beguiled by passing appearances. Through eternal vigilance, they are effectively preventing themselves from being diverted to bypaths that lead away from the Goal. They are ever alert and wakeful to the inner enemies that dwell within themselves as part of their triune nature, and ever keep themselves armed and guarded against the subtle temptations of their own human nature, their human mind.
Thrice blessed are they whom having thus been made aware of their supreme divine mission in this earth life, live their life in the light of this awareness in a God-oriented way, bringing a divine quality to their thoughts, speech and actions, who are active in enquiry and discrimination, and who, with great earnestness and sincerity, keep themselves upon the straight and narrow path that leads to realisation, liberation and divine perfection.
42. THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE LAW OF KARMA
Everyone today knows about the Law of Karma and karma-phala-bhoga (experiencing the fruit of action). It was once the possession of the East, but it is now a global insight. Everyone knows that this great spiritual law of cause and effect pervades human life.
It is also duplicated in the physical world of gross material sciences. You bring into being a certain cause; it brings into being a certain result. You sow a seed; it produces a plant of its own kind. Even so, in the psychological and psychical realm, if you manifest friendliness, the world becomes friendly to you. If you manifest hostility, the world responds in a like manner. The world is like a mirror. What you give comes back to you. And so it is said: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
Therefore, every day this law of cause and effect is demonstrated before us, but we never pay attention. We do not understand the implications of what we see happening. We do not realise that we make our life by the way in which we keep on producing causes—mental, verbal and physical.
If we are wise, if we are really serious in our quest and in our spiritual life, we shall ever exercise discrimination, ever enquire: “My mind is harbouring this thought. Next moment it will propel me to engage in an action corresponding to this thought. What will be the effect of this action upon my spiritual life, upon my progress towards the Goal? What will be its result?” Thus a sadhaka thinks, a spiritual seeker thinks of the consequences of his action in relation to the reaction it is likely to bring into manifestation.
That is the hallmark of the wise seeker, sadhaka. For that is the one supreme task in his life. He is engaged in moving towards the sublime goal of God-realisation. Therefore, he engages in all such actions—mental, verbal, physical—that will enhance his progress towards the Goal, and he will abstain from all such acts—mental, verbal, physical—that are likely to detract or divert or take him away from the fulfilment of his quest.
This should always be borne in mind. One should live in the light of the awareness of this great law, which is our greatest friend, which is the sure guarantee of success in our spiritual life and sadhana. It can help us steer clear of many avoidable difficulties, problems and complications in our spiritual life. If properly understood and properly applied in the living of our life, it is the one thing that can ensure us that we will attain the Goal without fail. It is a law that is the outcome of the great wisdom, love and justice of the Universal Soul—for the highest good and benefit of Its own amsa or part, the individual soul.
What we strive for we get. What we do not strive for, God may grant us or we may not get it. Therefore, we should pray to the Lord: “Grant us inner spiritual strength to resist temptations and to control the mind.” Simultaneously, we must work hard to develop inner spiritual strength which will help us to resist temptations and to control the mind.
Thus will our knowledge of karma and karma-phala-bhoga become fruitful and effective in success, in attainment, in achievement, in glorious fulfilment. God bless us all to become strong in the Spirit, to make the flesh also partake of this inner strength of the Spirit and to be obedient and subservient to the call of the Spirit and to the Law of Karma.
One of the basic ways to begin the study of Vedanta is with the Vivekachudamani, the Crest Jewel of Discrimination, by Sri Sankara, in which he sought to introduce the sadhaka to the Vedantic method of discrimination between the Reality and the appearance, the eternal and the non-eternal, the permanent and the fleeting, the Spirit and that which is non-Spirit.
In the field of spiritual sadhana we must also be vivekis. We must not only discriminate between the one undivided Brahman and the many—which is fleeting, temporary, subject to decay and dissolution in time, and limited in space—but we must constantly exercise, in an active manner, this supreme quality of viveka or discrimination in our daily lives.
We live for an ideal. We have adopted certain principles of life. We must, therefore, at every step, at every moment discriminate: “Will this thought, this sentiment or emotion, this word, this action, take me towards the ideal, or will it take me in a wrong direction? Is this helpful to me in making me centred in God, or is it something that will make me forget God? If it will make me forget God, I reject it. If it will help me to abide in God, I welcome it; I shall give a place to it in my life.”
The great lord of dharma, Yamadharmaraja, teaches this to the brilliant, young seeker, Nachiketas, in the Kathopanishad: “Two paths open up before each individual soul at every step, O Nachiketas, that which is merely pleasant, which attracts, beguiles and is likely to tempt and divert one away, and that which is good, which will uplift us, enhance our spirituality and lead us to glory.”
He speaks, therefore, of the preyo marga which is merely pleasant and the sreyo marga which may appear hard but wherein lies our highest good. And the wise sadhaka, endowed with viveka, always discriminates between the two. He rejects the merely pleasant which will lead nowhere or perhaps lead to grief; and, even though seemingly difficult, not so attractive, chooses the direction that will take him upward, Godward, towards the fruition and successful attainment of the spiritual Goal.
Discrimination is not something that you just do in your meditation room or your study. In your room you may learn the art and science, the necessity, nature and method of right discrimination—reading works like the Vivekachudamani, the Bhagavad Gita and Gurudev’s practical spiritual books—but discrimination itself is an internal state that has to be constantly ever active from the moment of waking up into this outer world until the moment of sleeping once again.
Discrimination is the first of the fourfold indispensable sadhanas ( sadhana chatushtaya) our ancient spiritual masters have suggested and prescribed for us: viveka, vairagya, shat sampat and mumukshutva—discrimination, dispassion, the sixfold virtues and a burning desire for liberation. It is first because all other sadhanas depend upon a cultivated discipline of discrimination or viveka.
Without viveka, vairagya (dispassion) is not possible. It will only be sentiment, a passing, bubbling emotion or a mood. It is only through a constant exercise of viveka that vairagya gradually becomes a permanent state within your antahkarana. There have been cases where a sudden blow has become the turning point in one’s life and launched one upon the spiritual quest. The person by that very experience becomes possessed by great vairagya. It becomes permanent, not a passing mood. But these are more the rare exceptions; they are not the rule.
On the contrary, in spite of repeated knocks and blows and bitter experiences, the human mind is so inveterately foolish, so inveterately bound up in delusion, that it soon returns to its previous ruts and grooves. Again and again it goes back to its age-old pattern of behaviour. It is only in rare cases that vairagya becomes like an ignition, and a blaze issues out of it. By and large the mind does not easily change its nature.
However, if by a constant, actively exercised viveka, we can change the very nature, the pattern, of the mind’s thinking and relating itself to the outer world and its understanding of sense-objects, then gradually the mind can become an asset. Instead of becoming the net in which one is caught, our bondage, it becomes an asset.
And it is to this end that we have to try to understand the mind, train the mind, and keep the mind constantly guided by an awakened intellect, constantly giving it a correct direction, constantly guiding it in the direction of God. It is a never-ending process whether you are a bhakta, a jnani, a yogi or a karmi. It is an indispensable, hidden, inner sadhana that takes place no matter where you are and whether you are a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Parsi or Jain.
Therefore, if upon this plane we discriminate and act wisely, and if we take all the help we can from satsanga, svadhyaya and sad-vichara, then gradually our consciousness can be made aware of the other plane, the higher plane of a spiritual awareness within our own being. And it is to the degree and the measure of your ability to lift up your interior onto that spiritual plane that the speed, the success and the fulfilment of your spiritual quest will depend.
That temptation is part of spiritual life was declared long ago by Yamadharmaraja to young Nachiketas in the Kathopanishad: Attractions always try to divert our attention, draw us away from the path and make us forget the Goal. Therefore, you must be vigilant and alert. You must steel yourself to resist the blandishments of this attractive world-appearance in which you have to live and through which you have to move towards the Goal Supreme.
You must exercise your discrimination. Be intelligent, be wise. Do not be puerile. In the ascent of the spirit towards total perfection and liberation, every step is assailed with attractions and temptations to take the easy path, the pleasant path that leads to darkness and bondage. You must show maturity and resolutely choose the path that leads to your highest good, your supreme welfare.
Therefore, the call is to wisdom. The call is to be wise, to be your own friend, your own well-wisher. Do not bring harm upon yourself. Do not court sorrow. Do not go after darkness and bondage when you are on the path that leads to light, to reality, to immortality and supreme liberation. Therefore, arise, awake, and until you reach the Supreme Goal, be aware and beware of these hurdles on the way.
44. FINE-TUNING YOUR DISCRIMINATION
A sadhaka is a person with a sense of keen perception, with a sense of discrimination and discernment, who keenly enquires and sifts the grain from the chaff, sifts the substance from the superfluous outer appearances, who goes to the tattva behind the nama rupa. He is always doing this.
And in this process of discrimination, the classical content of this viveka is usually stated as discrimination between the permanent and the passing, the eternal and the non-eternal, the Self and the non-Self, the Reality and the appearances. This is the traditional way, but in actual practical spiritual life upon the path of yoga, discrimination is seen to be more than that.
A sadhaka has to discriminate between what constitutes a factor favourable to his or her sadhana and what constitutes a thing not favourable. If a thing is favourable, it should be accepted and given a place in his sadhana. If it is unfavourable, it is to be rejected, to be given no place.
But this is not all. A thing may be amoral. It is not unfavourable but neither is it favourable. Can you then, in your daily life and sadhana, give a place to such a thing? Here is required another step in this process of discrimination. It is not unfavourable—it is amoral—but is it necessary? Should you clutter your life with unnecessary, avoidable things?
This is one step further, a fine-tuning of your discrimination. Supposing a thing is not positively and actually harmful or unfavourable, but it is unnecessary; it consumes your time. Then, in truth, it means that it deprives you of time which might have been utilised in sadhana. It may not be seemingly contrary to sadhana, but, in essence, it is contrary to sadhana because it has robbed you of a chance and a scope for furthering your spiritual life.
Therefore, the person who is earnest, who is a genuine seeker, will not allow something that is even indirectly adverse to his sadhana. He will always ask: “Is it necessary?” If it is not necessary, but it is unavoidable, all right, he suffers it. He suffers it, and at the same time tries to find ways and means of making this unavoidable occupation somehow spiritual in its content, by bringing a new bhava into it, doing it with a certain attitude, offering it at the feet of the Lord, remembering Him even in the midst of this tiresome, unavoidable process.
So, we should always be trying to find out how we can take maximum advantage of every drop of our life, every second of our time. Because that is the only thing we have. Diversions and byways may be very pleasant. But have we come here to pass our lives in pleasantries? Or have we come here to accumulate riches beyond compare?
Any diversion from the main way is a delay in reaching the Goal. It is so much energy wasted, so much time consumed. And if these diversions become our habitual vice, our habitual failing, our habitual folly, then we shall never reach the Goal. Because, delay beyond a certain limit may find us still far from the Goal, and suddenly life may come to an end. For life cannot be stretched; you cannot add to your allotted span of life.
So, if this really becomes a habitual failing of yours, ultimately you will have to pay the price of passing away still in a state of bondage, still in a state of imperfection, with your life’s purpose unachieved. Do you wish this for yourself? Ask yourself this question, and let your deep reflection on it bring into your life a new alertness, a fresh vigilance and a determination not to allow this to happen; on the contrary, you will make use of every second for this great attainment.
We have to constantly keep sowing the seeds of noble spiritual ideas, feelings and intentions in our mind. Our destiny depends upon how we cultivate our interior. Guru Maharaj used to say: “Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character and you reap your destiny.”
So, the cultivation of our interior, the sowing of seeds of right thoughts and right intentions is of the utmost importance to any serious sadhaka. “As you sow, so shall you reap.” “As a man thinketh, so he becometh.” If we allow our mind to be diverted and move away in ten directions into miscellaneous channels, in silly matters, where is the time to sow, with seriousness, the valuable seeds of right thinking and feeling?
Have we come here for little things by the wayside, when God has endowed us with intellect, made us in His image, has given us the great privilege of deep thinking, reasoning, discrimination, logic, enquiry, analysis? Is it to go to waste?
Therefore, radiant Divinities, who have come here to know and experience your own all-perfect, divine, essential nature, nija svarupa, be up and doing on the spiritual path. Be vigilant, be alert. Do not allow the mind to dupe you and beguile you away from the main task, and to divert you into these little byways.
Keep to the way. Byways are hundreds. The way is only one that goes straight to the Goal. Therefore, like a speeding arrow, take a straight course, without any diversion to this side or that side, towards the Goal Supreme. That is wisdom. That is the hallmark of a true seeker, a true spiritual aspirant. Show yourself to be that. In this lies your highest gain, your supreme welfare, your greatest good.
Lord Krishna’s special prescription for attaining success in the spiritual life in and through the world was abhyasa and vairagya (practice and dispassion). Abhyasa and vairagya are twin corollaries. They cannot be separated. They are mutually supportive. The more you do abhyasa, the more you grow in vairagya. The more you practise vairagya, the more your abhyasa begins to progress and begins to be effective. They are like two wings of a bird.
This ancient divine teaching of Lord Krishna, His prescription for attaining supreme bliss and blessedness, was also expressed by Gurudev in his permanent message to mankind: Detach. Attach. Detach means vairagya. Attach means abhyasa. Doing and not doing both constitute practical religion. They are the obverse and reverse of the same coin.
Doing good to others is the positive aspect. Not harming, hurting or injuring others is the negative aspect of religion. To cultivate satsanga, the company of the wise, means to avoid the company of that which is asat or the company of that which is likely to take or turn you away from the sat.
This avoidance is as important an aspect of spiritual life, sadhana and Self-realisation as is the cultivating. Lord Krishna said: “trividham narakasyedam dvaram nasanam atmanah kamah krodhas tatha lobhas tasmad etat trayam tyajet (Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the self—lust, anger and greed; therefore one should abandon these three).” And Gurudev said: “Free us from egoism, lust, greed, hatred, anger and jealousy.”
Thus, the whole of the scriptures contains nothing but cultivating and avoiding. The whole of religion is nothing but turning away from Mammon and moving towards God. We cannot worship God and Mammon at the same time. You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
This avoidance is not an external practice. There is nothing outside to avoid because everything is God—all this is Brahman: sarvam khalvidam brahma. This sadhana of avoidance is something which is carried on within yourself, within your heart, your mind, your personality. Lust, anger and greed are not outside. There is no sin or evil outside. There is nothing to be avoided outside. If the inner avoidance has been done the outer avoidance is meaningless. For one established in brahmacharya all company is the same.
Within you there are also things which you must cultivate, you must cherish, you must practise. Abhyasa is also within you. Abhyasa is for the svarupa (divine essence) to constantly affirm Itself, assert Itself, manifest Itself in an active manner.
Vairagya and abhyasa are both to be done in the realm of the kurukshetra (battlefield) within you. A sadhaka is a being who is at war with himself inside. He fights the battle on two fronts: the practice of the active presence of the inner svarupa and, at the same time, dispassion for all those things that mitigate against this practice.
46. DUALITY IN NON-DUALITY
Worshipful homage unto the supreme Divine Reality, the transcendental, absolute, cosmic Spirit Divine that is minuter than the minutest, greater than the greatest, nearer than the nearest, farther than the farthest; that is non-dual and impersonal, yet is the most personal of all personal things. It is nearer and dearer to you than father, mother, relative and friend; It is the very life of your life.
It, therefore, stands, as it were, in a strange contradiction: personal and impersonal; remote, absolute, non-dual, transcending, but nevertheless, very immediate and our all in all. Non-duality and non non-duality both seem to inhere without any contradiction, any paradox, in that Being. For He is everything that exists.
Therefore, being infinite, omnipresent, that Being has to be everything that seems to us to be multifarious, many. They solved this paradox by saying that He is the One within the many, Unity in diversity: eko devah sarvabhuteshu gudhah (God, who is one only is hidden in all beings). Even so, in this life we meet two in one everywhere; there is duality in everything. You have to ponder how it is so, why it is so. And knowing it, how to make it a positive asset and not a negative liability. That each one has to work out for oneself.
The whole of nature, the whole of God’s creation abounds in this duality. If a family comes here, we may suggest that they sanctify themselves with a Ganga bath. At the same time we tell them to beware of the Ganga, not to go out over their depth and to hold on to the chain. That means that the Ganga holds within itself the all-purifying divine power and grace and, at the same time, danger to life.
A match is indispensable in the household to light a candle or a fire, but if you are careless with it, it can cause a conflagration. All food will become insipid and tasteless if you lose the sense of taste. At the same time, the greatest problem of the spiritual sadhaka who wants to control his senses is the tongue. Without sight the entire visual world is lost to us, but at the same time, a real problem for sadhakas is the eye.
Inspiring and elevating truths can be imbibed by listening to discourses through the ear. You can listen to bhajans, kirtan or Vedic chanting. But, at the same time, if you listen to scandal, gossip and backbiting, it will be the source of irreparable harm to you. So, this one single organ of the ear can become to you a great elevator to God-consciousness, or, if misdirected, it can become a curse, a source of agitation and confusion in the mind.
The Bhagavad Gita says that the self itself is the greatest friend of the self, and the self itself is the greatest enemy of the self. The self with the senses controlled is your greatest friend, but your own self, personality, individuality, with your senses uncontrolled and turbulent, stands as your greatest obstacle, greatest problem. Thus the wise masters have admonished sincere seeking souls to relate themselves to all the senses in a relationship of control, of mastery. Having eyes be as though you are blind. Having ears be as though you are deaf.
Gurudev made us aware and warned us to beware of this strange, seemingly contradictory inherence of a duality in everything within and without. For example, he said that the body is the greatest gift of God, for through it you can do infinite good to God’s creation and use it to attain your supreme good. On the other hand, he said that the body is the greatest bondage; it is the greatest curse. You should never again come back into it; therefore, strive for moksha, for liberation from the wheel of birth and death. So, the body has, at once, two seemingly opposite principles.
The Gita also brings home to us this contradiction at the psychological level. Lord Krishna asks Arjuna to free himself from a negative mood. He chastises him, scolds him, pulls him up. He appeals to Arjuna’s intellect to assert its rationality to snap out of this abject, deplorable, unfortunate state of mind.
And the strange part of it is, it is this very psyche that was in turmoil and caused Arjuna’s breakdown that—when it listened intently to Krishna’s teaching, grasped it, absorbed it, understood and assimilated it—brought about a transformation, a clear psychological transformation. That very mind that had become Arjuna’s stumbling block became clear, resolute, free of doubt and prepared to do the necessary. This means that the potential for such a change already inheres in the mind. Therefore, the resolution of the contradiction is in the hands of the jivatman, the individual.
It is said that the true Mahabharata is in the field of the human interior, the psyche. There you have to resolve the contradictions and become established in a single balanced state, an equanimous state.
In the spiritual path, all our experiences, negative and positive, that seemingly come to us from outside, actually spring from within us. For the essence of non-duality exists within us. It is how we relate ourselves, how we take things, respond to things, react to things, interpret things. Although our problems seemingly come from without, they spring from ourselves.
This is a truth to be deeply reflected upon and understood. It will give us the key to success. We should not seek solutions outside, because they are not outside. We have to seek solutions to our problems within, whether they be ethical, social, psychological or spiritual. Because, in truth, the problem is not without; the problem is within. We are the source of non-duality, and it is the mind that creates duality as well as non-duality. It is the source of contradiction and also resolution of the contradiction.
A newborn infant and an illumined sage behold the same world. Neither of them is affected. They are not bothered. But, when we have outgrown the natural innocence and simplicity of the infant and we have not reached the full maturity of illumination and enlightenment, we become the prolific source of problems, complications, intricacies and complexities. It is because we have neither the simplicity of the infant, nor the enlightenment and illumination of the sage.
In between, therefore, there is a need for common sense, for caution, for alertness and vigilance. More than anything else, we need a proper understanding and a grasp of this fundamental truth that within us lies both the paradox of contradiction as well as its sure, unfailing solution. Therefore, wisdom, common sense and an alert awareness of the situation has to prevail always, because we move with this paradox and contradiction every moment of our wakeful life.
This is not only to be known as an intellectual or psychological fact, it has to be applied and exercised throughout our life as sadhakas and seekers until we reach illumination and liberation. It is for a practical purpose that the knowledge of this paradoxical contradiction is to be fully grasped and understood. It is not only for knowing, but it is for being applied, for doing something about it each day.
May the grace of God and the benedictions of the guru enable us to successfully apply this knowledge for unhampered progress in our spiritual life and sadhana, and for ultimately transcending all problems by and through this knowledge. May this truth enable us to make our spiritual life and sadhana progressive, successful and fruitful!