Chapter 6  ·  Contents  ·  Chapter 8

7. KEEP SACRED THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS TO REALIZE THE ATMA

Embodiments of Divine Love,

In this world conditioned by the three attributes (sattwa-balance, equanimity; rajas-passion, propensity to be active and tamas-dullness, inertia) where there is a combination of pain and pleasure, man is unable to recognize his innate Divinity. The whole world is full of attachment; man will be happy the day he renounces attachment to evanescent forms. This attachment which is due to ego, leads one to disrepute and pain. As long as one is egoistic, one does not receive true Love from anyone. The day one becomes detached, he will receive Love from everyone. Therefore, start gradually to reduce worldly attachments.

As long as he has anger man will have no peace and happiness; to have spiritual progress, happiness and peace, he must control his anger and reduce his desires. The man with anger will achieve nothing; he will commit mistakes and sins causing people to shun him. Life is a long journey and desires are the luggage. Less luggage makes travel a pleasure, so in the journey of life one must reduce the luggage; so discriminate in this life what is necessary and what is not.

During his life, man experiences many changes; life is an ocean consisting of waves of both pleasure and pain. One is happy when one's desires are fulfilled and unhappy when they are not. The spiritual heart rather than the external world should be the source of man's happiness. It is not possible in life to separate and keep the pleasures only and remove all of the hardships. Without knowing pain and displeasure, one cannot appreciate any happiness or pleasure; pleasure and pain are like the two cotyledons of a bean seed, or two sides of one coin; pleasure is an interval between two pains. One must keep the spirit of equanimity in both pleasure and pain, profit and loss. Difficulties and hardships are necessary because they lead to thoughts and ideas or teach lessons to enhance spiritual transformation and happiness. One must face the resistances inherent in life and march ahead to Divinity; for this we need God's grace. Today, though man is working hard and wants to deserve grace and happiness, he is undeserving. Why is man far from fulfilling his needs for permanent Joy, Peace and Bliss? It is because he has no control over what he listens to and what he speaks.

When one loses control over his actions and vision, he is away from God's grace. See no evil, see what is good. Hear no evil, hear what is good. Speak no evil, speak what is good. Man today is looking at the world with a perverted, impure vision. All are seeing only other's faults, not their own. What kind of person are you if you seek another's faults? Rectify your own faults. As is the thought, so is the feeling; as is the feeling, so is the experience. If your feelings are good, your actions will be good and if your vision is sacred, the world will appear sacred. Once the gum Dronacharya asked Dharmaraja (the Pandava King) how matters in the Kingdom were progressing.

Dharmaraja replied that all persons were good, with sacred ideals, and he extolled their manner of living. The subjects, who were pure and selfless, loved their king as they loved their own parents. Next Duryodhana was asked how his Kingdom was progressing. He replied that he had not seen even one good man. He informed the gum that all were evil. Dharmaraja's vision was sacred so everything appeared sacred to him; Duryodhana's vision was mean so everything appeared evil. Good and bad are not intrinsic to the world, but are only found in one's thoughts and counter-thoughts. If one has sacred vision, then everything appears to be good. This entire creation was and is being created by God; God is the cause and creation is the effect. The whole universe consists of the relationship between the cause and the effect, is pure and pious, and should be extolled as Divine.

Narada extolled it as, "pure, attributeless, eternal, and unsullied." From the ocean, numerous different forms of waves rise; all have come from one ocean. A wave consists of some water and foam having the same content as the ocean. Likewise, symbolically, every individual is like a wave on the ocean of sat chit ananda', therefore in all beings there exists sat chit ananda.

Though ornaments are many, gold is one,
Though pots are many, clay is one,
Though cows are many, milk is one.

The entire creation of multiplicity of forms consists of God alone. Nature is kriti meaning an act of God. Nature is made of five elements (earth, air, fire, water, ether) which are equally distributed in all. God is in all beings - "Easwara Sarva Buthanam." When an individual practices oneness, there will be no anger. Sugar is one but sweet meats are of different types, shapes and forms. When once you recognise the Divinity (sugar) in all, you will be able to recognise the oneness of the Atma. It is only due to seeing the diversity of names, forms and attributes that we believe diversity to be reality when it is not. One should not criticize. Those who point out other's mistakes do not know their own. By first seeing and then removing our own mistakes the Divinity within us will shine.

The love between mother and child is attachment, the love between husband and wife is affection, love between friends is friendship, love between God and devotees is devotion. Though the Love is one only, as it is used differently, it has different names. What must one do to develop this Love? Penance and meditation are done only for mental satisfaction. All spiritual activities are undertaken with the mind only whereas true Love is beyond the mind. Divine Love is the only One which permeates the entire world. There may be crores (100,000) and crores of names and forms, but the Self in all is One. When many zeros are added to the number one, it goes from 10 to 100 to 1000 to 10,000. Where did the zeros get their value? Only from the '1'.

Remove the 1 (God) and all (men) are zeros,
Only the 1 (God) is the Hero.
The world (name and form) is the zero.

1+1+1+1+1 = 1 = Yoga (all of the individual sparks comprise the one Paramatma or Supersoul.)

This oneness is termed 'yoga'; combining or bringing together is yoga. The unity of the individual and Divinity is to be taken as yoga. Physical exercise is of no value to achieve yoga.

The complete control over the mind can be called yoga. To go within oneself to know the nature of one's mind, one must reduce his desires. The day we have less desires, we will attain happiness. Unlimited desires lead to diseases. For example the normal body temperature is 98.4°F, but if it reaches 99°F, that would be fever. Normal blood pressure is 120/80; a disease may cause the blood pressure to reach 90. One should understand that life is a limited company; in order to remain safe and secure everything one does should be under limits. Once the limits are crossed, one can become mad; therefore, make every effort to control the senses.

Once a poet prayed, extolling the tongue, "Oh Divine tongue who would not utter a lie, how can I express your sacredness?" How are we making use of this tongue? We should not harm anyone with our words. We should speak softly and not blame anyone. The tongue is capable of committing four sins (1) falsehood, (2) excessive talk (3) accusing others (4) imaginings. The other organs like the eyes and nose have only one function each, the eyes to see and the nose to smell, but the tongue tastes and talks, and must be controlled. Observe silence, then you would be able to conserve more energy, improve memory, and attain more Divine power.

Also, if you speak more and more you may commit more mistakes. Thus, you must learn to make proper use of the tongue. Through limited talk you will realize supreme inner happiness. Your tongue should not harm anyone; Swami always says to "Help ever, hurt never." This is the proper sadhana. But today as the eyes are always watching bad rather than good things, one is losing his discrimination. See no evil, see only what is good.

For example, Kechaka (a character in the Mahabaratha Epic) had evil vision, and ultimately lost his life. No one would ever have the name Kechaka, because of his bad reputation. The Ramayana teaches this lesson of the importance of good character. Manthara, the servant-maid of Kaikeyi, poisoned the mind of Kaikeyi on the eve of Rama's coronation. Manthara's bad feelings and words fouled the sacred heart of Kaikeyi with the result that she ultimately lost her husband and Manthara soiled her reputation. No one today will keep the name Manthara, because the world dislikes her. So, never listen to bad things and spoil your purity and good character.

Duryodhana also had an evil mind, and so his entire clan was ruined. In the whole of India, no one would have the name Duryodhana. Though there exist today many men of Duryodhana's nature, no one would carry that name. There are many good ideals depicted in the stories and epics of Bharat. Ravana, the demon king, was an expert in sixteen forms of knowledge, but practiced no human values. What was the use of all this education? Having learnt everything external, a foolish man does not know his own nature. Although he may have a high position, a mean man does not trans form himself. Man studies endlessly until death but all his knowledge only helps him to argue more cleverly. We should only study that which teaches us how to become immortal. So, Ravana who never gave up all bad deeds and thoughts, caused the ruin of the entire clan. Among all the people in Bharat no one will keep the name, 'Ravana'.

Liberation is an extremely subtle state of being; devotion is the easiest way to reach this state. Liberation is very close and intimate; God is one's nearest and dearest friend. We call people our 'friends' according to their positions and status. Today's friends maybe tomorrow's enemies, but God is always with us and in us. One should develop devotion with that indwelling God. What is the reason for man's restlessness today? It is his loss of self-confidence which leads to misery. We should have self-confidence, self-satisfaction, self-sacrifice and reach self-realisation. The first, self-confidence, is like the foundation of a house. The walls are self-satisfaction, the roof is self-sacrifice, and life is self-realisation. We must always enquire, "Who am I?" We say my body, my mind, and my senses, but who am I? I am not the body, the mind, or the senses; these are only my instruments. I am the Master. If you take the body, mind and senses along the wrong path, it is your mistake. To avoid error, follow the witness in the body, the 'conscience'. The senses are 'conscious'; conscience comes from consciousness; consciousness comes from Brahman who is all-pervasive. The entire creation has come from Brahman', there is no place without Him.

God (Brahman) cannot be known objectively. In order to know the Divine, one must experience Him beyond the mind and intellect. One cannot see air. So too, God is also everywhere, but one must experience Him to know Him. The way to experience God is only through sadhana, (spiritual practices). For example, when we put sugar into a glass of water initially it remains at the bottom. Unless one stirs it with a spoon, it does not readily dissolve. After stirring, when you taste it, you see that it is now a syrup. Similarly, the body can be compared to the tumbler with sugar the Divinity. There is no taste in your life at present because you are drinking the water of worldly desires. Take the sugar of sadhana to enable you to taste the syrup of Divinity. One should use the buddhi (subtle intellect) in order to experience one's Divinity. Then one would be able to experience the Mahavakya, Tat twam asi which means "That thou Art," (You are God), as well as to experience, "Poornamadah, Poornamidam, Poornath Poorna Mudhacyathe" - "That is full. This is full."

"Ayam Atma Brahma," a Mahavakya, means this Atma is Brahman. What is Prajnanam Brahmaf It is not derived through study; it is "Constant Integrated Awareness"; total awareness is God. For example, I tell you that this is a cloth (Swami holds up a folded handkerchief); this is not awareness (prajnanam). But once you open it up, it is total awareness; total awareness is not a segment. Total understanding is the nature of Brahman that exists within everyone. Ignorance is not our true nature, but we are covered by the ash of ignorance like a live ember is covered by ash. The ash has its origin in the fire only, but if you blow away the ash, you would be enabled to see the fire. The fire of Divine awareness is always shining, but the woridly desires cover this Divinity. If you blow away the ashes of woridly desires, prajnanam would result.

Take for example a tree full of birds. How can one get rid of those noisy creatures making a mess all over? One should clap his hands loudly and wake them up. Similarly, in this tree of life, there are birds of desires that make the heart impure. In order to cleanse it, sing bhajans and chant the names of Rama and Krishna.

April 12, 1996

Chapter 8