Devotee: You must remove a big load from my head, Swami. However much I try to forget it, in whichever direction I turn, I suffer from it; I hear only that! Then how can I dismiss it from my mind? Finding it impossible, I pray to You. Please don’t mistake my intention. Kindly give me a direct answer, because if you do, the weight will be lifted from the heads of all people like me, and enthusiasm will increase for spiritual exercises.
Otherwise, I’m worried that we may lose even the little faith that we have in the Lord, and I’m afraid we may turn into atheists. Your answer will be of immense help, not only to me but to all devotees everywhere. Therefore, I pray to You to wipe off my doubts without hesitation and tell me the real truth, in very clear terms.
Swami: What is it? Tell me. What is the cause of so much headache?
Devotee: Swami, You told us that people have four stages of life (asramas) - student, householder, hermit, and renunciant (brahma-charya, grihastha, vanaprasth...
Devotee: Swami, can we ask you freely about any topic concerning the spiritual path that we don’t know?
Swami: Certainly. Why this doubt? What is the objection? What am I here for? Isn’t it for explaining to you things you don’t know? You can ask me without any fear or hesitation. I’m always ready to answer. However, I want earnest inquiry with a desire to know.
Devotee: But some elders say it is wrong to vex the guru with questions. Are they right, Swami?
Swami: That is not correct. Whom else can the disciple approach? Since the guru is everything to the disciple, it is best to consult the guru in all matters and then act.
Devotee: Some say that we should reverentially carry out whatever the elders ask us to do, without raising objections.
Is that your command also?
Swami: Until you develop full faith in them and know that their words are valid, it will be difficult for you to carry out their orders reverentially. So, until then, it won’t be wrong to ask them the significanc...
The ocean is one and indivisible, but here it is called the North Sea and there the South Sea! So too, the Lord, the ocean of grace, is one, but He is assigned various names according to the age or era of time. The holy rivers seeking to reach the ocean flow from all directions; so too, people seek the Lord through various spiritual disciplines and finally merge themselves, all of them, in Krishna.
Mankind can win happiness only through unity, and not through diversity. If thoughts and feelings run along the routes of distinction and division, happiness is beyond reach and peace cannot be experienced. Without peace, you have no chance to be joyful. Consider the one indivisible ocean as the goal. What does the direction of flow matter? What does the name matter? The rivers merge in the self-same sea, don’t they? Spiritual aspirants and devotees who adopt the path of yoga, the path of devotion, or the path of peace, dharma, truth, and love reach the ocean of grace at last, and name and...
The trip home
When the aerial cart rose, there was great commotion on the ground; monkey hordes raised thunderous shouts of “victory (jai) to Rama, victory to Sita, Rama, and Lakshmana.” Inside the aerial cart was a high throne, charmingly designed and carved, and Sita and Rama took their seats on it. They then appeared to all as a cloud with a lightning flash resting on the Sumeru Peak.
Rama drew Sita’s attention to the battlefield below and said, “Here is where Lakshmana overpowered and killed Meghanada.” He showed her other spots associated with similar exploits and victories. He showed her the bridge that the monkeys had constructed across the sea and described to her the monkey’s heroism, devotion, and faith.
Very soon, the aerial chariot reached the Dandaka Forest. Rama had the vehicle land before the hermitages of Agastya and other sages. With Sita, Lakshmana, and other members of his entourage, Rama visited the holy sages and paid reverential homage to them. After t...
That which has no origin knows no beginning. It was before everything or anything was. There was nothing prior to It. For that very reason, It has no end. It expands as far as It wills, progresses as diverse as It feels, and, through Its fullness, fills the universe. Knowledge of this supreme principle is known as “that which illumines (vidya)” - spiritual knowledge, wisdom, awareness.
Many seers with manifold experiences of this unique awareness have visualised in their illumined hearts the sovereign secret underlying the captivating beauty of the cosmos. Compassion toward humanity has prompted them to communicate the vision through human language to arouse the innate thirst in the soul for immersion in that bliss. Spiritual learning (vidya) causes this urge in the hearts of the seers.
Vedic literature
Sound is the very core of the Veda. Sound is associated with harmony and melody, so the Veda has to be heard and ecstasy derived therefrom. It is not to be analysed, commented upon,...
There are two kinds of teaching: indirect and direct. Teaching deduction and induction, reasoning and inference through the Vedas and concluding treatises (Vedanta) is indirect. When this understanding is experienced and realized, it becomes direct. The highest Brahman - which is truth, wisdom, and bliss - is self-evident, so its understanding can at best be only indirect. Looked at from one point of view, the Brahman knows neither indirect nor direct. It is unique, being beyond both. To obtain this direct knowledge of the Absolute, the first requisite is spiritual practice, and the first step in this practice is service done to a virtuous teacher with full faith and full submission.
The teacher too should be always instructing the aspirant in the nature of Brahman, and in simple ways.
When the disciple grasps this instruction, it becomes indirect knowledge. This indirect knowledge itself can be transformed into direct knowledge by constant reflection, turning over in the mind. Indire...
Swapyayath
“Swa” means “in oneself”, that is to say, “in Brahman”. “Apyayath” means “since it merges”. The two words tell us, “since it is said that the individual soul (jivi) merges in Brahman”, during deep, dreamless sleep, the individual resumes its real nature, being (sat). Since the self attains the Self, which is Itself, it is then the Atma and nothing else. The Atma, which appeared as if enclosed in name and form, discards the name and form and merges in the Universal Atma. The wave has merged in the ocean. It had become, so now it is just being (sat).
Brahman: both eternal Being and total Awareness
The core of all Vedantic texts and teachings is the truths:
Brahman is both the efficient and material cause of the cosmos (jagath), which merges and emerges (ga and ja).
Brahman is one and one only, so there is nothing in the cosmos apart from Brahman without consciousness.
There is nothing inert (jada) and inactive. Brahman is, according to the s...
The realised souls (jivan-mukthas) are like lighthouses that point out the way to ships caught in blinding darkness in mid-ocean. The spiritual lighthouses show the way to those who struggle helplessly in the thick night of ignorance.
All are born out of the womb of the one Lord. Just as many varieties of fish and crabs and aquatic creatures move about inside a big tank, multitudes of human beings move about in the sea called the Lord. This is indeed a very awesome scene. Some are undeveloped, some underdeveloped; they swim around, greedy and selfish. In the midst of this crowd of ignorant beings are a few highly developed souls, the wise (jnanis) and yogis. Since they are mixed up with the ignorant crowd, it becomes difficult to distinguish the wise from the others. A microscope is necessary to identify the red corpuscles in the blood; similarly, a special microscope is needed to find the wise.
That microscope is no other than meditation.
This creation, and the wonder with which it is...
Every aspirant must enter onto the path of inquiry. Only then can the conviction dawn and grow that nature and all learning connected with nature are unreal; only then will these be given a relative, not an absolute value.
They are, of course, to be learned and experienced as necessary for existence, as a kind of daily routine. However, they should not be mistaken to be the highest knowledge, the unchanging eternal truth. That mistake, if committed, leads to an agitated mind (a-santhi). Agitation produces worry and anxiety, which in turn destroy peace.
If you aspire to peace, equanimity, the basic thing is to have faith in the temporary nature of Nature and be engaged in the uninterrupted contemplation of the changeless Godhead.
Therefore, do not be bound by selfish attachments. Engage yourself in the discharge of your duties. Do not allow yourself to be gladdened by success or saddened by failure. Be ready to renounce all that is harmful. Then, through discrimination, you can beat the...
The term vidya is derived by adding ya to the root vidh. Ya means ‘what’; vidh, ‘light’. So, “that which gives light” is vidya. This is the basic meaning of the word. Therefore, it is evident that only knowledge of Brahman (Brahma-vidya) deserves to be known as real knowledge. The ancients considered knowledge as light and ignorance (a-vidya) as darkness. Just as light and darkness cannot coexist at the same time in the same place, knowledge and ignorance cannot be together. So, all who journey along the path of progress have to purify their consciousness and illumine themselves through knowledge of Brahman.
The two aspects of education
In the section on manifestation of power (Vibhuthi Yoga), the Gita says that God declares, “Among all knowledge systems, I am the knowledge of the highest Atma!” All other knowledge systems are rivers; knowledge of the highest Atma is the ocean.
Just as all rivers find fulfilment merging in the ocean, all knowledge systems join the ocean...
