https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/gospel/gospel.htm
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I am not the perceiver, nor the perceived. I am not associated with the act of perception.
I am the substratum over which this phenomenon happens. If 'I ' did not exist this (these 3 phenomena) would not have taken place.
'I' am 'therefore', 'thus' the witness. the sakshi. The independent. the not-bound. the nitya mukta. the shuddha buddha.
What do I do of the things that I am not, yet I experience ?
Well, that is your 'Paap'. That is what gives rise to deha buddhi, chitta jada granthi. Bandhilki.
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After a while all activities drop off except meditation on the Self
--nis
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The desire to find the self will be surely fulfilled, provided you want nothing else.
But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else.
If, in the meantime, you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between contradictory urges.
Go within, without swerving, without ever looking outward. (145)
Once you have understood that nothing perceivable, or conceivable, can be yourself, you are free of your imaginations.
To see everything as imagination, born of desire, is necessary for self-realization. We miss the real by lack of attention, and create the unreal by excess of imagination. (489)
To go beyond, you need alert immobility, quiet attention. (217)
These moments of inner quiet will burn out all obstacles without fail.
(219)
Silence is the main factor. In peace and silence you grow. (375)
In peace and silence, the skin of the "I" dissolves and the inner and the outer become one. (483)
Remember, nothing you perceive is your own. (510)
What is really your own, you are not conscious of. (445)
You are nothing that you are conscious of. (458)
Even in holy places like
Badrikashram it is not easy to reach that stage, of
Supreme Bliss, where all distinctions disappear, where
all activity ceases. There may be a few great souls
who enjoy the state of Samadhi but even their minds
and senses arc not beyond the reach of the mighty
Illusion. One may ascend to the highest peak of the
Himalayas ; but unless one is exceptionally fortunate
and possesses tireless industry, deep faith, true know-
ledge and the highest degree of detachment, one
cannot overcome Illusion completely and reach that
final blissful state of merger with the Supreme.
A mind cannot qualify itself for the realiza- tion of Truth except through the worship of both the gross and the subtle. Beginners in spiritual practice sometimes try to grapple with the Abstract straightaway and they invariably fail.
To concentrate the mind upon Brahman, one must begin with worship. So, for people who are only imperfectly qualified to enter into meditation, pious description of the objects of worship like stone or earth or idol, are not without use If Bhaktas advise their disciples to meditate upon
Shaligram or Snalmgani or some such stone, as if it were God, Yogis advise their followers to concentrate their minds upon mbhi chakra (the navel wheel), Hndayapmnlankam(fiie\olas of the heart), Nasikagram (tip of the nose), Jihwagram (tip of the tongue), Bliroomaclltyam (centre of the brows), etc , and followers of the Upamshads direct their pupils to worship “ aima ” (physical body). Prana (air) and various other materialistic things Why do they do so ’’
They do so because all of them agree that without first gaming a certain degree of concentration by fixing the mind upon physical objects, it is difficult for people to focus their minds upon the abstract Brahman.
Constant supposition by itself cannot make a thing real. There is nothing absurd in worshipping some- thing unreal for the improvement of the mind When a man has realized the eternal Truth by distinguishing between the true and the untrue with the help of concrete objects, he may no longer require that mode of worship, but until such realization, the substitution of the unreal for the Real, is not undesirable or pur- poseless If that IS so, tlie detailed description of some image, holy place or beautiful thing, which is suitable for the worship of gross-minded people and which will help towards the purification and concen- tration of their minds, cannot be open to censure, though, from one point of view, the description may appear to be that of a purely imaginary thing, as unreal as the child of a barren woman If it serves seekers after Truth to some extent in their quest, my effort in writing these pieces of description shall I not be in vain I know Truth is that endless luminous Knowledge transcending the three gunas and action know 1 am That and am supremely happy in that
Knowledge. I believe whatever I do, whether I read or write, eat or breathe, play or ramble, or remain in a state of mental concentration (samadhi) is for the good of my brethren.
Brahman is the ultimate Truth. He who has accepted It has accepted everything ; who knows It knows everything ; who has gained It has gained everything.
But nobody knows that Brahman, nor
desires to know It.
Nobody seems to possess that
purity and fineness of mind which makes one desire to
attain Brahman.People are engaged in the relentless pursuit of ephemeral and limited worldly pleasures. To get at those flimsy joys and to preserve them they waste the precious human life. They appear inordi- nately proud of such possessions. Alas ! even man is not his own. Then how can these external things become his possessions ? All these pleasures arebut the infinitesimal part of the bliss of Brahman Few indeed are the people who aim at that supreme Bliss
There is no doubt regarding the partiality of our ancient rishis for solitude. They never neglected their souls for the enjoyment of worldly
pleasures. They firmly believed that the gain of all the world was no compensation for the loss of one’s soul. They were never satisfied with anything less than realization. Unlike the people of our generation they never stopped with words. They found content- ment only in the enjoyment of long periods of Samadhi. They never considered the fall of the human body as a “ condition precedent ” to the enjoyment of perfect spiritual bliss. Such bliss could be enjoyed in the state of Samadhi even before the soul had freed itself from the body. “
Thus it is clear that it is the inner spirit that is at the root of all beauty. I am that spirit which ever shines unsurpassed. A man’s highest state is the Jnanasamadhi in which he enjoys total identification with that spirit. Compared with that state, all action and in-action are petty and insignificant. Yet, forced by inherited tendencies, even enlightened ones are drawn by God into the vortex of worldly activity. When an enlightened one is awakened by God from
that high state of Samadhi in which there is absolutely no consciousness of the body and the senses, and when the body and the senses begin to function again, the person still continues to enjoy the stale of Atma samadhi. In spite of such activity the enlightened one does not swerve from the state of Atma samadhi.
Brahmananda is unrelated to worldly things , it depends solely on Self realization
imp
It deserves to be specially mentioned that the state of knowledge which is the sole source of everlasting peace can be attained only by right thinking
and not merely by dhyana or samadhiSome do mistake them for jnana They are under the impression that the practice of dhvana is the be all and end all of existence and that a man who practises dhyana for half an hour or an hour daily has completed his spiritual duty and so he is free to do anything after- wards. They are labouring under the mistake that a person who reaches the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi for a minute or two, has attained his goal and that he has already reached sahat/an even wide aive 7t is only when we examine whether this man of Nirnkalpa Samadhi has attained an unwavering state of spiritual devotion, that is a devotion beyond doubt, that we realize the hollowness of his Jnan mukli It may briefly be said that this class of people are the unfortu-nates who have not been able to understand clearly the cause, the nature and the result of jnana and dhyana through association with real mahatmas.impDhyana and Samadhi may be regarded as co- operative factors contributing to the perfection of Jnana , but they are neither Jnana nor the cause of Jnana .One may attain that exalted state of jnana where one finds oneself in everything and everything in oneself, only through cultivating detachment and Vedantic thinking.Neither hollow samadhi nor Jada samadhi can take him to that goal where one experiences eternal contentment.170170" The peacock never attains the speed of the swan Even so a householder can hardly attain the greatness of sanyasins who pass their days in devotion in the solitudes of forests ” so says a Buddhist book“ If a woman enters our Ashram we will hack her to pieces with a sword so declared a Tibetan Lamato me once. The lama was probably exaggerating, yet his words point to their deep seated desire not to get mixed up with worldly affairs which tend to cause violent mental agitations.Unlike the things of the objective world, spiritual truths cannot be perceived by one’s senses or even by mere intellect and therefore, only those disciples who possess the necessary qualifications and who, having learned the Truth from noble preceptors, constantlymeditate upon it, realize the Truth.The atman is the basis of all universe and its controller ; yet, it is free, pure, changeless, inactive. It has no gunas (attributes) and no shape.' It is beyond the power of words to describe. It is self-luminous. He who perceives this truth directly and without doubt crosses the sea of samsara and attains salvation. No more does he return to this miserable existence of births and deaths, sorrows and sufferings. What is commonly spoken of as “ I ” in relation to everybody is directly known to all in its general form ; but in its particular shape it remains unknown. “I am the free, immortal and blissful spirit ” is a realization that seldom comes to men.179God has created human beings with their minds turned naturally outward, that is, towards the phenomenal world. The mind of course is open to imaginings and doubts. Hence it is really difiicult for man to withdraw the mind and the senses from their worldly preoccupations and find God in himself. Out of thousands but one controls the mind and senses through Vairagya and the earnest desire to secure salvation, turns the mind inward and finds satisfecthm in the realization of the souL The true man is he who resists the temptations of the senses, overcom-f their irresistible attractions, and realizes Truth. Th' roan who fails to trti&c this He for the seareh Truth or at least for the zegnisition of thoseimp-which will ultimately lead him to Truth, is really wasting his precious chance. Nothing is more regretta- ble, than wasting human life m eating, sleeping, fearing, mating, etc., like brutes. Tlie people who, enslaved by the senses, spend their time coveting this and that, subject themselves to death — that is, they continue to be chained down to the cycle of births and deaths. But those heroic souls that have con- quered their minds and their senses, know how fleeting worldly pleasures are and therefore they give them up. They aim only at immortality, they live for it ; they exert themselves ceaselessly to reach it. The sole means of salvation is the true knowledge of the one and only Soul It may be called differently as Jnana or Iswara according to the different ways of looking at It, but It is the same chaitanya. This knowledge is the true knowledge. It can be gained by a proper study of the Upanishads.The knowledge of difference consists in conceiving of as many souls as there arc bodies and regarding the individual soul as different from the universal soul. This knowledge is unreal ; it cannot render one immortal (and therefore incapable of confering immortality)On the practical plane we may speak of “ You ” and “ I ” but in reality there is no plurality of the soul.Those who are not fully qualified to realize in themselves the supreme soul, should worship the pranata. They must constantly pronounce it “ Om, Om, Om ”.The weak-minded should pronounce it loud and long like the tolling of a bell.People with stronger minds must pronounce it more slowly. At the same time they must try to concentrate on Nirgun Brahman.Those who are unable to do so may concentrate their minds upon the “ Om ” sound itself.Sam...to summarize...ekta = supreme.if not possible ie if still dweliing in plurality, thenpranata.for dull...om rapidly like bell gongfor sharper...om slowly ...concentrate on 'nirguna Bramha"This exercise of Pranava upasana gradually produces the knowledge of the soulIndifference to worldly pleasures is the chief requisite for spiritual advancementMy dear, labour not under the delusion that cxter..al things are the source iof happiness. Give up all attachment and cling to Vairagya. Indeed, even now you are rich in Vairagya ; yet, I tell you all this only to strengthen your spirit of Vairagya : Withdraw your mind from all transient, terrestrial concerns, give it peace and practise concen- tration, so that you can sec God as clearly and as directly as I see you.The method .....cont part 2
"To meditate, you should withdraw within yourself or retire to a secluded corner or to the forest. And you should always discriminate between the Real and the unreal. God alone is real, the Eternal Substance; all else is unreal, that is, impermanent. By discriminating thus, one should shake off impermanent objects from the mind."
"Further, by meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge, dispassion, and devotion. But the very same mind goes downward if it dwells in the world. In the world there is only one thought: 'woman and gold'.1
"The world is water and the mind milk. If you pour milk into water they become one; you cannot find the pure milk any more. But turn the milk into curd and churn it into butter. Then, when that butter is placed in water, it will float. So, practise spiritual discipline in solitude and obtain the butter of knowledge and love. Even if you keep that butter in the water of the world the two will not mix. The butter will float.
Sri Ramakrishna said: "Just imagine Hanuman's state of mind. He didn't care for money, honour, creature comforts, or anything else. He longed only for God. When he was running away with the heavenly weapon that had been secreted in the crystal pillar, Mandodari began to tempt him with various fruits so that he might come down and drop the weapon. But he couldn't be tricked so easily. In reply to her persuasions he sang this song:
Am I in need of fruit?
I have the Fruit that makes this life
Fruitful indeed. Within my heart
The Tree of Rama grows,
Bearing salvation for its fruit.
Under the Wish-fulfilling Tree
Of Rama do I sit at ease,
Plucking whatever fruit I will.
But if you speak of fruit —
No beggar, I, for common fruit.
Behold, I go,
Leaving a bitter fruit for you."
The Master smiled as he said this, and continued: "There are some people who have no grit whatever. They are like flattened rice soaked in milk — soft and mushy. No inner strength!"
The Master said: "The bliss of worship and communion with God is the true wine, the wine of ecstatic love. The goal of human life is to love God. Bhakti is the one essential thing. To know God through jnana and reasoning is extremely difficult."
Who is there that can understand what Mother Kali is?
Even the six darsanas are powerless to reveal Her.
"That is to say, renounce everything and call on God. He alone is real; all else is illusory. Without the realization of God everything is futile. This is the great secret."
Yearning for God:
MASTER: "It begets yearning for God. It begets love of God. Nothing whatsoever is achieved in spiritual life without yearning. By constantly living in the company of holy men, the soul becomes restless for God. This yearning is like the state of mind of a man who has someone ill in the family. His mind is in a state of perpetual restlessness, thinking how the sick person may be cured. Or again, one should feel a yearning for God like the yearning of a man who has lost his job and is wandering from one office to another in search of work. If he is rejected at a certain place which has no vacancy, he goes there again the next day and inquires, 'Is there any vacancy today?'
"There is another way: earnestly praying to God. God is our very own. We should say to Him: 'O God, what is Thy nature? Reveal Thyself to me. Thou must show Thyself to me; for why else hast Thou created me?'
As soon as a man finds his mind wandering away to the unreal, he should apply discrimination. The moment an elephant stretches out its trunk to eat a plaintain-tree in a neighbour's garden, it gets a blow from the iron goad of the driver."
"What is knowledge? And what is the nature of this ego? 'God alone is the Doer, and none else' — that is knowledge. I am not the doer; I am a mere instrument in His hand. Therefore I say: 'O Mother, Thou art the Operator and I am the machine. Thou art the Indweller and I am the house. Thou art the Driver and I am the carriage. I move as Thou movest me. I do as Thou makest me do. I speak as Thou makest me speak. Not I, not I, but Thou, but Thou.'"
vol 1 chp 3 ...1/3
brahma not easily understood.
"In samadhi one attains the Knowledge of Brahman — one realizes Brahman In that state reasoning stops altogether, and man becomes mute. He has no power to describe the nature of Brahman.
After the vision of Brahman a man becomes silent. He reasons about It as long as he has not realized It. If you heat butter in a pan on the stove, it makes a sizzling sound as long as the water it contains has not dried up. But when no trace of water is left the clarified butter makes no sound. If you put an uncooked cake of flour in that butter it sizzles again. But after the cake is cooked all sound stops. Just so, a man established in samadhi comes down to the relative plane of consciousness in order to teach others, and then he talks about God.
"The bee buzzes as long as it is not sitting on a flower. It becomes silent when it begins to sip the honey. But sometimes, intoxicated with the honey, it buzzes again.
"The rishis of old attained the Knowledge of Brahman. One cannot have this so long as there is the slightest trace of worldliness. How hard the rishis laboured! Early in the morning they would go away from the hermitage, and would spend the whole day in solitude, meditating on Brahman. At night they would return to the hermitage and eat a little fruit or roots. They kept their minds aloof from the objects of sight, hearing, touch, and other things of a worldly nature. Only thus did they realize Brahman as their own inner consciousness.
"The jnani gives up his identification with worldly things, discriminating, 'Not this, not this'. Only then can he realize Brahman. It is like reaching the roof of a house by leaving the steps behind, one by one. But the vijnani, who is more intimately acquainted with Brahman, realizes something more. He realizes that the steps are made of the same materials as the roof: bricks, lime, and brick-dust. That which is realized intuitively as Brahman, through the eliminating process of 'Not this, not this', is then found to have become the universe and all its living beings, The vijnani sees that the Reality which is nirguna, without attributes, is also saguna, with attributes.
The man coming down from samadhi perceives that it is Brahman that has become the ego, the universe, and all living beings. This is known as vijnana.
How are you trying, O my mind, to know the nature of God?
You are groping like a madman locked in a dark room.
He is grasped through ecstatic love; how can you fathom Him without it?
Only through affirmation, never negation, can you know Him;
Neither through Veda nor through Tantra nor the six darsanas.
"The means of realizing God are ecstasy of love and devotion — that is, one must love God. He who is Brahman is addressed as the Mother,
He it is, says Ramprasad, that I approach as Mother;
But must I give away the secret, here in the market-place?
From the hints I have given, O mind, guess what that Being is!
"Ramprasad asks the mind only to guess the nature of God. He wishes it to understand that what is called Brahman in the Vedas is addressed by him as the Mother. He who is attributeless also has attributes. He who is Brahman man is also Sakti. When thought of as inactive, He is called Brahman, and when thought of as the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, He is called the Primordial Energy, Kali.
"Brahman and Sakti are identical, like fire and its power to burn. When we talk of fire we automatically mean also its power to burn. Again, the fire's power to burn implies the fire itself. If you accept the one you must accept the other.
"Brahman alone is addressed as the Mother. This is because a mother is an object of great love. One is able to realize God just through love. Ecstasy of feeling, devotion, love, and faith — these are the means. Listen to a song:
As is a man's meditation, so is his feeling of love;
As is a man's feeling of love, so is his gain;
And faith is the root of all.
If in the Nectar Lake of Mother Kali's feet
My mind remains immersed,
Of little use are worship, oblations, or sacrifice.
"What is needed is absorption in God — loving Him intensely. The 'Nectar Lake' is the Lake of Immortality. A man sinking in It does not die, but becomes immortal. Some people believe that by thinking of God too much the mind becomes deranged; but that is not true. God is the Lake of Nectar, the Ocean of Immortality. He is called the 'Immortal' in the Vedas. Sinking in It, one does not die, but verily transcends death.
Of little use are worship, oblations, or sacrifice.
If a man comes to love God, he need not trouble himself much about these activities. One needs a fan only as long as there is no breeze. The fan may be laid aside if the southern breeze blows. Then what need is there of a fan?
"There is gold buried in your heart, but you are not yet aware of it. It is covered with a thin layer of clay. Once you are aware of it, all these activities of yours will lessen.
"With the realization of Satchidananda one goes into samadhi. Then duties drop away. Suppose I have been talking about the ostad and he arrives. What need is there of talking about him then? How long does the bee buzz around? So long as it isn't sitting on a flower. But it will not do for the sadhaka to renounce duties. He should perform his duties, such as worship, japa, meditation, prayer, and pilgrimage.
MUSICIAN: "Sir, what is the way to realize God?"
MASTER: "Bhakti is the one essential thing. To be sure. God exists in all beings. Who, then, is a devotee? He whose mind dwells on God. But this is not possible as long as one has egotism and vanity. The water of God's grace cannot collect on the high mound of egotism. It runs down. I am a mere machine.
"A little spiritual discipline is necessary in order to know what lies within."
"No. But one must be up and doing in the beginning. After that one need not work hard. The helmsman stands up and clutches the rudder firmly as long as the boat is passing through waves, storms, high wind, or around the curves of a river; but he relaxes after steering through them. As soon as the boat passes the curves and the helmsman feels a favourable wind, he sits comfortably and just touches the rudder. Next he prepares to unfurl the sail and gets ready for a smoke. Likewise, the aspirant enjoys peace and calm after passing the waves and storms of 'woman and gold'.
"Unless the mind becomes steady there cannot be yoga. It is the wind of worldliness that always disturbs the mind, which may be likened to a candle-flame. If that flame doesn't move at all, then one is said to have attained yoga.
"The mind of the yogi is always fixed on God, always absorbed in the Self. You can recognize such a man by merely looking at him. His eyes are wide open, with an aimless look, like. the eyes of the mother bird hatching her eggs. Her entire mind is fixed on the eggs, and there is a vacant look in her eyes. Can you show me such a picture?"
He may be called a siddha who has known from his inner experience that God exists. An analogy is given in the Vedanta to explain this. The master of the house is asleep in a dark room. Someone is groping in the darkness to find him. He touches the couch and says, 'No, it is not he.' He touches the window and says, 'No, it is not he.' He touches the door and says, 'No, it is not he.' This is known in the Vedanta as the process of 'Neti, neti', 'Not this, not this'. At last his hand touches the master's body and he exclaims, 'Here he is!' In other words, he is now conscious of the 'existence' of the master. He has found him, but he doesn't yet know him intimately.
"There is another type, known as the siddha of the siddha, the 'supremely perfect'. It is quite a different thing when one talks to the master intimately, when one knows God very intimately through love and devotion. A siddha has undoubtedly attained God, but the 'supremely perfect' has known God very intimately.
MASTER: "God cannot be seen with these physical eves. In the course of spiritual discipline one gets a 'love body', endowed with 'love eves', 'love ears', and so on. One sees God with those 'love eyes'. One hears the voice of God with those 'love ears'. One even gets a sexual organ made of love."
At these words M. burst out laughing. The Master continued, unannoyed, "With this 'love body' the soul communes with God."
M. again became serious.
MASTER: "But this is not possible without intense love of God. One sees nothing but God everywhere when one loves Him with great intensity. It is like a person with jaundice, who sees everything yellow. Then one feels, 'I am verily He.'
"A drunkard, deeply intoxicated, says, 'Verily I am Kali!' The gopis, intoxicated with love, exclaimed, 'Verily I am Krishna!
"One who thinks of God, day and night, beholds Him everywhere. It is like a man's seeing flames on all sides after he has gazed fixedly at one flame for some time."
The doubts of the mind will not disappear without His grace. Doubts do not disappear without Self-realization.
"But one need not fear anything if one has received the grace of God. It is rather easy for a child to stumble if he holds his father's hand; but there can be no such fear if the father holds the child's hand. A man does not have to suffer any more if God, in His grace, removes his doubts and reveals Himself to him. But this grace descends upon him only after he has prayed to God with intense yearning of heart and practised spiritual discipline. The mother feels compassion for her child when she sees him running about breathlessly. She has been hiding herself; now she appears before the child."
cont - master and keshab
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