E. THE LIVING OF OUR LIFE
Ultimately, it is one who succeeds in successfully living life in a divine way that enters into Divine-consciousness. Divine perfection being our goal, the rationale of living our life divinely is quite simple and evident. The more, in all parts of life, we strive to become and to be that which we are trying to attain, the greater the certainty of moving towards it and attaining it.
The more your life becomes filled with the God-nature, the more sure you are of attaining God-realisation. The more you bring a quality of divinity to prevail in the living of your life—in thought, words, deeds, actions and attitude—the more this way of life becomes effective in taking you towards Divine-experience.
This then is the necessity, the scientific reason behind striving to think divinely, feel divinely and to speak and act divinely. It is the rationale behind making our life a divine life. For our goal is no more, no less than fulfilling our divine destiny in life. Divine perfection, illumination and liberation is our unique mission as human beings.
Now you can see the connection between the life you are now living—the consciousness that prevails within your interior—and the supreme goal of Divine-consciousness that you are diligently striving to attain. May you grasp this important fact of the spiritual life, and try to become firmly established in the spiritual ideal by pledging to do so with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul—willingly, joyfully, enthusiastically and determinedly.
Do it so, and do it now. Herein lies your highest good, your supreme welfare, and the assurance of your fulfilment and success in life.
96. KEEP MOVING TOWARDS THE GREAT DESTINATION
You have not come upon this earth plane to remain here forever. It is a brief sojourn in a plane of existence which is not your true and permanent plane of existence. It is not your native place. You do not belong here, for you are the unborn, eternal Spirit Divine.
This is the declaration of those who have seen, known, realised, experienced, and thus are absolutely convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt about this truth, this fact—as convinced as one who holds a berry in his hand. He simply knows that it is there.
Therefore, all the great ones have addressed the pilgrim soul: “O, ye travellers upon this earth plane! You are Spirit—without dimensions, far beyond name and form, far beyond time and space—which is not caught in this finite, phenomenal universe of inert things. You being pure, eternal, unborn, imperishable Spirit are not a dweller of this gross, ever-changing, temporary, material physical plane of names and forms. They do not go together. Eternity is beyond time. You are beyond time. The Spirit transcends the limitations of matter. You transcend the limitations of matter.”
You have to reach a destination and you cannot afford to sleep by the wayside. You must be on the way. Life is the way. All other things pertaining to life are by the way. Therefore, you have to be intent upon being on the way and with alertness and vigilance carefully avoid being drawn out of the way into trivialities, into pleasure hunting. Those who hunt for pleasure do not know. It is they who are being hunted. They are the prey, yet they think that they are the hunters. They have become prey to the power of maya, losing themselves in the byways.
No matter how spectacular these byways may look— you may become a famous scientist, a wonderful cinema actor or a multi-billionaire—you are nothing if you lose your way. Because all these things are by the way, diversions. If the world applauds you, you have to weep in your heart, for the applause of the world is a nothing for one who has to reach a destination.
To be on the way and to keep moving upon the way is life. Everything else is death, spiritual death. Even if you pile up name, fame, applause, recognition and the wealth of the whole world, you live in spiritual poverty if you do not keep to the way and move towards the destination.
Never mistake the wayside trivialities to be the way. They may have their place for those who are still in ignorance, caught in avidya, groping and stumbling in the dark, who are firmly bound within the shackles of desire, craving, greed, and the sense of identification with the body and the reality of this unreal passing show. For them it is very important, so they go after it and weep bitterly in the end. For they have missed the way, lost their destination.
Let that not be your life. Let your life be characterised by wisdom, by clear perception. It is not the little things of life, the little pleasures, sense-satisfactions, titillations of the nerves that constitute life. Life is one thing, and all other things are beside life. That is the important thing to grasp. In going after little frivolities we may miss our life.
Life is the way, and the goal is God. The goal is your highest, supreme welfare, not temporary satisfaction. Therefore, ponder deeply this important fact that you are a traveller here, a pilgrim, a wayfarer. And for a traveller and a pilgrim the most important thing is the destination, and the most important thing in reaching the destination is to keep to the way, to be on the way.
The living of life in the right and proper manner, in an idealistic manner, constitutes the way. All other things are traps. They are petty diversions with no substance, no matter how great the world may value them. For the world is in a deep, deep delusion of Self-forgetfulness, in a state of deep slumber, dense darkness, firm bondage. Avoid this woeful condition. For you have been given the gift of an awakening, of a clear perception of what you are, why you are here, what the destination is and what the essence of life is.
The essence of life is to keep living your life, not to go after pleasant sense-satisfactions. They do not constitute the essence of life. They are episodes. They are mere frills. Therefore, keep to the way, and know that you are a passing pilgrim. Beware, be cautious, be warned and keep yourself in a state of wakefulness so that you are not diverted into petty, little byways, no matter how pleasant.
That is the great thing needful. For life is short and time is fleeting. Therefore, we have to be up and doing, moving straight towards the great Goal, attaining which one becomes supremely blessed. May Gurudev’s grace enable you to keep yourself in a state of constant wakefulness and awareness. This is life—to keep yourself always upon the path and moving towards the great goal and destination!
The one way of making action harmless, taking away its power of bondage is by elevating its quality through righteousness, dharma. When karma is infilled by dharma, it begins to become a liberating process.
We have all come here to work out our prarabdha karma. The karmic pattern decides the various experiences—physical and psychological—that each one of us has to undergo. And, there is nothing very mysterious or inevitable about this either. There is nothing inexorable, for it is our own creation. It is we who have worked for it.
Therefore, there is neither a sense of tyranny nor a sense of helplessness in this at all. We are the creators of our own present prarabdha even as we are the creators of our own future destiny. Either way, we are in charge. Either way, we are at the helm of affairs. Either way, we hold the key. Therefore, our position is supreme. This is to be well grasped and understood.
We are all here as a result of our karmic pattern, both in the broad sense of being incarnated on the earth plane and in the immediate sense of being here, now, in Sivananda Ashram. We are also all engaged in working out our karma. But that is not the great thing. The great thing is to know its genesis, its exact implication and its nature.
This karma is not imposed upon us or forced upon us. We have created it. It is our own creation, and we may nullify the prarabdha karmic pattern by refusing to be affected by it through using a superior philosophy, a higher understanding.
Karma has its affect upon the body, the nervous system and upon the mind and intellect—thoughts, emotions, sentiments, opinions. “But I am different from all these things. I am the great, transcendental Spirit Divine, never affected by anything. I neither need to laugh nor weep. I am all-full, I am bliss absolute. I am peace profound. I am the light shining beyond all darkness.
Karma cannot touch me. I laugh. I am the unattached, supremely unconcerned witness of all that happens—all changing states of the body, all changing states of the mind, in all conditions.”
This is the central, secret initiation that Holy Master openly gave to one and all. This is the golden key. Karmic pattern works itself. Atman abides serene and unaffected because the Atman is above, beyond, unattached and untouched. Therefore, the Atman looks on as an observer. If that stand is taken, if one firmly establishes oneself in that inner centre and is what one is, then the karmic pattern unfolds itself. Experiences come and go, but one remains the same. This is the one thing needful.
And this period—when one is thus observing the unfolding and passing of the karmic pattern—also holds within itself the potential for liberation, for the experience absolute, for illumination. For this period can be filled with abhyasa, yoga, sadhana. It can be filled with purushartha (effort). It can be filled with fresh, rightly chosen and wisely executed karma. It is a creative period, a constructive period, a rich period. It is a period that fashions your future.
Therein lies the value of the present moment as prarabdha karma unfolds itself. It holds within itself the key to blessedness, the scope for unending progress. It holds within itself all the ingredients that are necessary for the ascent unto perfection. It contains, therefore, the essence of life, the essence of living—striving, attaining, achieving and becoming free.
“Know thyself and be free” was not meant to be said in vain. It was not a mouthing of words; it was not an airing of ideas. They are words of power. They are a call to perfection and liberation. They should ring in the depth of our consciousness and rouse us into wakefulness and to dynamic purushartha. They are living words. One who responds is indeed blessed. The Master of the Middle East said: “He who has eyes, let him see; he who has ears, let him hear. Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Therefore, may each one of you be blessed with this vision that you may see. May each of you be endowed with alert perceptivity that you may hear and understand, see and know. And may each one of you make your life an unceasing seeking, a constant knocking at the doors of liberation, a perpetual asking in prayer, in meditation, in contemplation with earnest and sincere aspiration. Let your whole life be a continuous asking for your birthright, your heritage. Even an earthly father will not give a stone to a son who asks for bread. The heavenly Father gives the bread of life.
A parable is not a little entertaining story. It is pregnant with immediate meaning. It is given with an intention, and it has to be received with full awareness of its important meaning. Parables have deep meaning for us, great messages for us, deep implications for us.
Thus, make your life a steady upward ascent to the Goal Supreme. This indeed is life. For this indeed are we all here. If this is grasped and lived, your highest blessedness is in the palm of your hand; the supreme attainment is assured as sure as the sun rises in the east. May it thus be understood, and may you crown yourself with glory!
98. HOW ACTION WILL NOT BIND
In the Gita Lord Krishna tells Arjuna how He is present in this universe of ours, in our lives and in the day-to-day living of our lives. “I appear before you as this world. All things are indwelt by Me.” And in the tenth chapter of the Gita, Lord Krishna mentions to Arjuna about His special presence in each category of creation. “Among trees I am such and such a tree. Among rivers I am such and such a river. Among elephants I am such and such an elephant. Among seasons I am such and such a season. Among poets I am so and so.” And, as the Lord goes on recounting His glories, He sums it up by saying: “Whatever being there is that is glorious, prosperous or powerful, know that to be a manifestation of part of My splendour, for I am supremely transcendent and I support the world with just a part of Myself.”
And then Arjuna begins to think within himself: “What a person I was. I thought God was apart from me, far away, remote, difficult to conceive. Now I’m being told He is everywhere, in all directions, before me in this thing, in that thing.” And he is seized with a great curiosity, a great eagerness to behold in actuality what the Lord is describing. So he says to Him: “Can You actually make me see it?” The Lord replied that it was not possible with Arjuna’s physical eyes, but that He would give him a divine eye so he could behold it.
We too require a special vision. We think of God as some Being whom we have to strive at great length in order to see. But we should change our vision. We must see Him as our nearest and dearest. Though we mouth the words “You are my mother, You are my father, You are my relative and friend,” we don’t have that feeling towards Him as someone who is very close, someone very near and closely related to us.
The more we try to perceive this and begin to experience this in our feelings, in our bhava, the greater becomes our yoga, the more closely related and connected we are with Him. The bhava that He is not remote, not a stranger, not something far apart from us, is to be cultivated. Because, He is very near. He is our own. Maybe we are more familiar with Him than anything else.
This must be slowly realised in your heart. This feeling of your closeness to Him and His closeness to you must dawn in your heart. This feeling of your absolutely intimate relationship with Him must grow in your heart. And it is this that makes yoga possible. It is this that makes yoga fruitful. And it is this that enables you to be in yoga even in the midst of activity.
When you make Him close to you, familiar to you, then you can indeed be established in a close relationship with Him and at the same time act. Then action will not bind you. The world cannot bind you, for already you are bound to God in terms of intimate familiarity, closeness and love. That is the secret of abiding in God even in the midst of so-called earthly activities, for He has made clear that He is not remote and far, but indwells our world, our activities and our life on earth.
This is the secret of a permanent state of yoga within. He is your nearest and dearest. This is to be borne in your heart. This is to be felt every moment. Thus should your sadhana proceed—your intellect understanding this mystical truth, your mind ever dwelling upon this mystical truth, your heart always in awareness of this mystical truth. This is the key to success in spiritual life and attainment.
Of the millions and billions of people in this world, most are engaged in work of some sort. Most are driven by the necessity to work; they have a wife, children, sick mother. Some engage in activity because they obtain great satisfaction; they are contributing something to the forward movement of the world. Still others work compulsively; their nature is full of restlessness. Some, like Mother Teresa, work tirelessly because they are moved by the pain and suffering of others. And a rare few, like Ananda Mai Ma, are constantly on the move but with only one intent, to share their joy with others, to make all happy.
But some work as a means of spiritual evolution. They know that they need to round off their angularities, polish up their personality, eliminate defects and drawbacks, correct their errors, generate right motivation and gradually go beyond desire and selfishness by engaging in the field of practical, evolutionary karma yoga. In all their work, their ultimate desire and intention is only God, not self nor anything in this world. Their work does not have a direct connection with something in this world of things and enjoyment. Their work is invisibly connected with the Supreme Reality.
Their work is of a different quality. It is not worldly; it is not mundane. There is no desire behind it, but there is aspiration behind it. It is part of their evolutionary effort. It is a part of their sadhana. They are always alert and vigilant that imperfection may not creep into their work, that something undesirable, unspiritual, that goes in a direction contrary to the Divine, does not come into their work.
So, they are workers who seek to evolve through work. Therefore, they are also keenly self-analytical. Such work liberates because it is directed towards God, the highest goal of human existence. Such work liberates because it is not desire-driven; there is no greed behind it. Such work liberates because it is done with a spirit of adoration and worshipfulness where the presence of God is the essence of the matter. They work feeling that God is present here, now, and this is an offering to Him, another external way in which I adore Him. Thus their work is spiritualised, it is God-oriented. It is infilled with a certain knowledge and a certain bhava.
In addition, there are certain other activities that are unavoidable: eating to appease hunger, drinking to allay thirst, working in order to look after the stern, irreducible physical needs of the body—washing clothes, cooking, bathing. Even the sages who have realised the Self engage in these. Ramana Maharshi used to help cut vegetables in the kitchen. Gurudev attended to all manner of office work.
These are all forms of work which do not come under the category of deliberate activity or desire-driven activity. They are activities that cannot be avoided. The bound soul engages in this work; the liberated saint, sage, seer, engages in this work, because it is unavoidable. But even these are transformed into yoga, adoration and worship if you lift them up from the physical, material, earthly plane and place them upon a higher dimension through your bhava: “When I utter speech, it is Your praise, O Lord. When I move, it is perambulation around You, O Lord. When I sleep I am deeply one with You; it is samadhi for me, O Lord. And whatever acts I do to satisfy my senses is all adoration, for it is offered to Thee who art enshrined in my heart, O Lord.”
Thus even these unavoidable physical activities, born out of our very nature, are not allowed to go to waste, are not allowed to be unproductive or useless. Even they are converted into a creative process of adding on to your spiritual awareness and spiritual movement towards God. Such should be the ideal of the karma yogi and the devotee.
Those people, however, who in a state of ignorance engage in activity always have within them a corresponding psychological or mental flux. Sometimes they are elated, sometimes depressed. Sometimes they are excited, sometimes placid. Sometimes they are very annoyed or full of tension and anxiety or compulsive drives, sometimes conflicting moods and emotions. Their psyche is very much involved in an entangled, intricate manner with outer activities.
This is the antithesis of yoga and karma yoga. For they have no counterbalancing, inner psychological factor where there is a calm in the midst of the storm, where there is absolutely steady self-abidance in an inner principle not-withstanding all the activities one may engage in. Within oneself there is serenity, peace, joy, a steady abidance in the Self. Within there is an unassailable state of equanimity. Even the most hectic outer activity is not allowed to affect the inner equanimity. There is balance. One abides in peace and serenity, yet one engages in activity.
In very brief aphoristic statements, Lord Krishna advocates this type of activity: “Remember Me and do your duty.” “Engage in all activity, but abide in Me; be rooted, firmly established in Me.” “Let there be inner balance.” Thus in various places He opens our eyes to the possibility of a state where there is absolute quiescence in the midst of activity. There is no inner agitation, restlessness or excitement. Mind is under the influence of a higher inner state. There is serenity amidst activity.
This should be practised by all sadhakas and yogis, never allowing any activity to touch the inner serenity, never allowing even the most hectic, urgent activity to affect the inner abidance of the self in the Supreme Reality. This should be grasped and applied in one’s day-to-day activity. Activity may be unavoidable, but being affected by activity and falling into psychological states that are both upsetting to oneself and to others is avoidable.
“Do your duty free from inner feverishness.” Let there be santi, peace, coolness, an inner, unassailable serenity and equanimity. This should be the ideal. Then work becomes yoga and not a factor that changes your direction. Work is no work when perceived with the right perspective and vision. It is part of bhakti, jnana, vairagya and yoga. It supports them all.
May the art and science of such activity be acquired— karma-kausalam (skill in action). The centre point of a rapidly revolving wheel is almost stationary. We must, therefore, know that such is the nature of the work that is required if our life of sadhana is to move towards the Goal and yield the fruit of illumination, enlightenment and wisdom.
May we give deep thought to this subject of ourselves, our spiritual life and goal and the irreducible minimum of unavoidable work which we have to engage in. Giving deep thought, we shall benefit. Gradually we shall acquire the knowledge of how to live and work. And, in and through such a life of activity, we shall uniformly progress in our yoga.
God bless us all to see clearly the place of work in our life, the goal of work in our life and the way we should engage in work in our life!
100. EXPAND YOUR IDENTIFICATION TO OTHERS
May we constantly live with the awareness that our body is a moving temple of the Divine Reality. We regard our body as my body. We forget that He has an equal right to say that this body is My temple. And what we call ours is perhaps more His than ours. How easy it is to think that our body is ours! How difficult it is to keep thinking that it belongs to Him!
What is easy and what is difficult? What makes an easy thing easy and a difficult thing difficult? If we reflect upon this point, some very interesting facts arise. It is so very easy to think about ourselves. We never forget ourselves. It is so very easy to think about every minute detail of our needs, our programme, our goals, our clothes, our food. It comes so easily, so spontaneously. It seems natural. But it seems so very difficult to think about others—the needs of others, the happiness of others.
Why is it that we have to make an effort to think of others, whereas it comes so easy to think of ourselves? Perhaps it is because we do not have to make an effort to think about that with which we are fully identified. Therefore, it is natural and easy to think of the body and its needs, comforts, conveniences and every minute detail of its requirements. It spontaneously comes into the mind; it is always present in the mind. Sometimes it is difficult to put it out of the mind and think of something else. Once we know this, it becomes very easy to see why it is difficult to think of others. It is because we are not identified with others—their lives and their needs. Where there is identification, thought becomes easy and natural— spontaneous. Where there is absence of this identification it becomes very difficult.
People in the International Red Cross think of people all over the world. The moment a disaster strikes—someone is suffering—the Red Cross immediately thinks about them and rushes aid. What a miracle! How unnatural it seems! They are always alert, geared to think about others. It requires no effort because they have made that their basic aim, their objective. The very meaning of their existence is to think of others, to rush to the help of others. They have developed within themselves a capacity to identify themselves with others. They have developed this natural inclination to feel that their disaster is our disaster, that their suffering is our suffering; we have a part in it.
Perhaps the Red Cross has unconsciously solved the basic metaphysical problem of the individual soul in samsara, not by being philosophers or metaphysicians but by being humanitarians. Perhaps this is the key to the Vedantic declaration that we should wake up from the slumber of ignorance and give up this false identification with our little, narrow, confined, limited, temporary, false individual personality—that which is not our true Self.
Start your Vedanta, start your liberation by first being humanitarian, by first being kind and compassionate. Extend your identification and attachment to something vaster, higher, beyond. Thus the first step in breaking your bondage to this “I and mine” consciousness is to train yourself to think of others, to feel for others, to try to engage yourself in doing something that is helpful to others.
It may be that this is an indispensable interim stage. If you want to somehow or other overcome the immediate problem of the jivatman, and if you find it difficult to suddenly switch from the thought of yourself to the thought of the Supreme, then try to make this possible by switching your thought of yourself to your immediate nearby universe —the universe of others—of other people, creatures, insects, plants.
This is not so difficult because it is the known. It is the seen and it is immediate to you. Commence with this step. At least, if it will not take you immediately to God, it will have the helping effect of taking you out of yourself, out of your imprisonment to yourself. That is no mean achievement. That is itself a big step.
If you cannot find some way of suddenly switching from yourself to God or Brahman, then love your neighbour. Love anyone who happens to be your neighbour at that particular point in space and time. It doesn’t matter that they may be a perfect stranger, yet they are your neighbour at that time. So, if you extend a helping hand, perhaps to that extent you have attained a great victory, because you have extended your “I and mineness” out of this self-centred narrow cage of flesh and bones. It is one plus point in this process of liberation. And if you go on adding these plus points to your game of life, your life may be a constant process of liberating yourself, of continuous victory over the big problem—this bondage to the “I and mine.”
This is perhaps why they said: “Be good, do good. Be kind, be compassionate,” and “paropakarartham idam sariram (This body is meant for selfless service to others).” Knowing that an interim step is required to make one come out of oneself, to liberate oneself from oneself before one can enter into identification with the Supreme Being, they presented to humanity an ethical dimension, a dimension of idealism, of dharma, of paropakara, of kindness, compassion and service, of not “I”, but others. How interesting to consider this evolution of human society and history and how it has become part of the evolutionary process of the individual.
Therefore, if you want to make a seemingly difficult thing easy, start becoming identified with it, start feeling that this is mine as much as any other thing. Similarly, if you feel God is mine, it will be easier to think about Him, to remember Him without forgetting Him—much more than if you think He is some Being somewhere.
Therefore, the feeling of mineness, of identification, which is our human problem metaphysically, holds within itself the key to the metaphysical solution. Gurudev said: “Dharma is the gateway to moksha. Paropakara is the greatest sadhana, the key to blessedness. There is no God-realisation without ethical perfection.” May you find this key, this magic method of making difficult things easy, this magic method of liberating yourself from everything which vexes you!
101. THE FIRST STEP TO LIBERATION
The first step to liberation is to engage in the sadhana of selfless service unto all beings. Selfless service unto all beings is impossible where self-love is the normal state of our interior. When we love ourselves more than all other things, then our whole life will be based on this self-love only. It is when this fact is clearly recognised that one tries to liberate oneself from the binding shackles of self-love and extends one’s love to the whole world—to all of God’s creation including animals, reptiles, insects and even the grass that grows under our feet.
We try to become a centre of goodwill and benefit to all. Nothing is considered to be below our attention. Everything is great because one great God has created all things large and small. Then alone the spiritual life begins, because unless self-love gives place to love of all, selfishness cannot be overcome. Unless selfishness is overcome, the process of liberating oneself from the I-dominated consciousness will not proceed. We overcome selfishness by practising its opposite in a dynamic manner.
Selflessness practised in a dynamic manner is called selfless serv