Removal of all sorrow by Maharshi

The Sri Ramana Gita of B.V.Narasimha Swami

Part VII

While B.V.Narasimha Swami was residing in Sri Ramanasramam, around the year 1930, he took up the project of recasting Ganapati Muni’s Sri Ramana Gita in its original conversational form. For a full introduction to this recently discovered manuscript see the July/August 2009 Maharshi newsletter. In the present issue, we continue from our last issue with the conclusion of Chapter VII, along with its footnotes, titled “Self-Enquiry, Competence and Constituents,” which is the same title used in Sri Ramana Gita, chapter 7, presently published by Sri Ramanasramam.

Chapter VII

Self-Enquiry, Competence and Constituents

Referring to this discourse, the Maharshi was requested years later by some disciples to make the matter clear as to what is meant by (removal of all sorrow):

Disciple: Does the Maharshi mean that, as a result of Realisation, there is a feeling of positive pleasure, similar to our pleasures now experienced, or is it a mere colourless negation of pain and pleasure that you refer to by that phrase? All pleasure is known to us only by our knowledge of the contrasted state of pain; and hence, no pleasure is experienced if the pain-idea is not also experienced or remembered to make the pleasure-idea clear to the experiencer at the time of the experience.

Maharshi: You are right in drawing a distinction between the pleasure experienced in the waking state and that referred to in the expression ‘Bliss of the Self’, Sat-Chit-Anandam. You find reference to this distinction frequently in books on this subject, as well as in your own experience.

Disciple: Pray, in what books do we find this distinction discussed?

Maharshi: See the Panchadasi and the Tamil Kaivalyam, Chap. II, v. 116. Also see Vedanta Chudamani, reference to Ashta Vidanantam (eight pleasures) as being ‘poli’ (false) &mdsah; reflections or mere appearances or illusory bliss, and Sat-Chit-Anandam or Swarupananda as the Real bliss. It is however preferable to avoid the use of the term ‘positive’ by referring to the former, and to use the term ‘relative’ for the former, and ‘Absolute’ for the latter. In the latter, Bliss is itself Sat, itself Chit, itself Anandam – the Three, being different names or aspects of the one Reality, the Absolute. The bliss enjoyed in deep sleep is referred to as one of the eight poli anandam, illusory pleasures, in the book Vedanta Chudamani.

K.V.’s Question: Does Maharshi also apply this (i.e., destruction of all sorrow) as a result of Atma Vichara, in the field of suggestive therapeutics, e.g., in cases of illness (as in William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience, page 104) and in the practical affairs of daily life to overcome the various painful experiences met with?

Maharshi: Yes. The truth of the Self is one. Its applications are many. Sugar is one. The clever cook or lady of the house embodies it and presents it in the shape of payasam, halva, athirasam, jilebi, etc. But these are all transformations of sugar and cannot exist without sugar. The Central Substance or Truth is applied according to the peculiar needs or aspirations of each individual and to the purpose at hand. People who come here make use of the Truth for their own affairs. One, for instance, like the lady earlier mentioned, was complaining of dyspepsia and insomnia and, by applying the above Truth to herself and impressing on her mind that she was not the sickly body but the pure Atman that cannot be touched by disease, got over both her ailments. Many others have got over their stomach or other troubles here in the same manner.

K.V.: Was not Vasudeva Sastriar, when deeply afflicted with the loss of his dear child, relieved of his sorrow in this presence in the same manner? Are these all implied in character of Atma Vichara?

Maharshi: Yes, such instances here are not infrequent. Maharshi then proceeded to answer K.V.’s next question:

You inquired if the above benefit of ‘sarva­kleshanasa’ (the destruction of sorrow, root and branch) can be derived by other means?

What other means are there that secure this result? Are you thinking of siddhis, the eight siddhis
^[1]
which means, the power to assume any shape at will, or dimension, any size or weight, to attain any object of desire, overlordship, influence, etc. What good will these do? Suppose you exercise all these wonderful powers, are you not still desiring and trying to fulfill that desire? And when a fresh desire breaks out and you expend your energy and attention on that, is not the net result more worry to the tossed mind? Happiness is your real goal and aim. You must ultimately come back from your diversion with siddhis and try to find yourself by inquiring, ‘Who is it that wants happiness?’. You discover that happiness or bliss [which is our true nature] wants happiness or bliss, or rather that the so-called want and desire on the part of an individual is a myth, and that all along there is only the One Real in enjoyment (so-to-speak) of its Self, which is best described (however inaccurately or inadequately) as Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sat-Chit-Anandam.

K.V. next questioned Maharshi:

Who is the Adhikari, i.e., the person competent to launch on this Atma Vichara, the Self-quest? Can anyone judge for himself if he has the necessary competency?

Maharshi: This is an important preliminary question. Before Atma Vichara is started some antecedent experience, some achievement in the moral field is essential.

People having varied experiences in the world, at one stage develop a disgust or repulsion (vairagya) towards sense attractions or, at any rate, an indif­ference to such attractions, and feel forcibly the miserable transient nature of this body through which these attractions and enjoyments are had. This may be the result of the practice of devotion or some other upasana in this life, or of such devotion or other good works performed in previous lives. People with minds thus purified and strengthened are the adhikaris, the ones competent to launch on Atma Vichara or enquiry into the Self; and these are the qualifications or signs by which one can determine such competency.

K.V.: As for these good works mentioned just now, such as snana, sandhya, japa, homa, swadhyaya, Deva puja, sankirtana, tirtha yatra, yagna, dana and vritas (i.e. ablution, sandhya vandana, or matin and vespers, repetition of mantras, fire-offering, study of holy script, worship of God, singing his praise or name, pilgrimages to holy places, the five Yagnas, ^[2] charitable gifts, and holy vows), if these are needed merely to give a man competency for starting on Atma Vichara, and if a man has had sufficient viveka (discrimination between the Real and the unreal) and vairagya, dispassion, is there any use in such an adhikari carrying on the above, or are they merely a waste of his time and energy?

Maharshi: When an adhikari’s raga (attachments) are fading away, these good works (sat karma) tend to chitta sudhita, further purify his mind. The positive good work done by body, mind or speech destroys the corresponding evil deeds (dush karma) he may have done through these – the body, mind or speech. But if the adhikari has no more stain left to work out in this way, his good works endure for the benefit of the world at large. The wise and perfect go on doing sat karma, good works.

Footnotes:

---

1. The Ashta Siddhi (eight siddhis) are:

• Animaa: reducing one’s body even to the size of an atom
• Mahima: expanding one’s body to an infinitely large size
• Garima: becoming infinitely heavy
• Laghima: becoming almost weightless
• Praapti: having unrestricted access to all places
• Praakaamya: realizing whatever one desires
• Ishshtva: possessing absolute lordship;
• Vashtva: the power to subjugate all.

2. Yagnas are the five offerings which everyone, especially a grihasta,
(house-holder) should offer daily:

• Deva Yagna – Sacrifice to Gods: e.g. oblations of food, water, etc.
• Rishi Yagna – Study of the Vedas which issued from the lips of the Rishis
• Pitru Yagna – Offering of food and water to the spirits of the ancestors
• Bhuta Yagna – Offering of food and water to the lower beings.
• Atma Yagna – Study of one’s self

“MIND” Ramana Maharshi

“Mind it is that binds man, and the same mind it is that liberates him. Mind is constituted of sankalpa and vikalpa, desire and disposition. Desire shapes and governs disposition. Desire is of two kinds – the noble and the base. The base desires are lust and greed. Noble desire is directed towards enlightenment and emancipation. Base desire contaminates and clouds the understanding. Sadhana is easy for the aspirant who is endowed with noble desires. Calmness is the criterion of spiritual progress. Plunge the purified mind into the Heart. Then the work is over. This is the essence of all spiritual discipline!”

The Goal and the Way…Intro. by Satprakashananda (77)

The fundamental difference between man and what we call the lower orders of life is not in the physical form but in the psychical funtion. In human life the mind has reached a level at which it can think. Man not only sees, but reads and interprets things. He looks far beyond the senses. His knowledge is not confined within the domain of sense perception. The human mind has the capacity to probe the deepest secrets of nature and unravel the preofound mysteries of life. Not only that, man can also regulate his life by his knowledge. The practical application of man’s knowledge for the advancement of individual and social welfare is a characteristic feature of civilized life.

Much more important than sheer intellect is the moral sense of man. He is not a mere instrument of his instincts, as some psychologists hold. He can discriminate between right and wrong. true and false, noble and ignoble, good and pleasant. The instinctive urges are no doubt strong in man; but guided by reason, he can develop will power to control the natural impulses and pursue his chosen course. He has the choice of decision as well as the choice of action. He can dominate and direct the lower self by the higher self. This self-mastery constitutes the real nature of man. Man’s advancement is proportionate to the development of this virtue.

Sel-assertion and self-aggrandizement are the instinctive urges of animal life. Self-denial and self-sacrifice are the human attributes developed by moral culture. This distinguishes humanity from animality. Indeed, “humanity” is the distinctive mark of the human race as brutality is that of the beasts. In the animal kingdom life grows chiefly through rivalry and hostility in the struggle for existence. Those live who can subdue others. The fittest survive. On the human plane the scene changes. Mankind advances, as we see, through cooperation, self-abnegation, altruism. Man’s worthiness rests on the fulfillment of his duties and obligation. Whenver this truth is forgotten, human society faces dissension and disaster, with attendant misery.

In human human life there is an ideal, a regulative principle, a philosophy. Man’s outlook on life determines his way of life. To man the art of life is more important than mere living. A life devoid of meaning and purpose is regarded as of little value. He who has no aim in life is like a breathing machine in human form. Man alone considers it glorious to sacrifice his life for the sake of the ideal. Such martyrdom immortalizes him. There have been martyrs in religion, in philosophy, in science, in nationalism. We rever them as heroes.

In man self-consciousness is much more developed that in other living beings. He can distinguish the self from the not-self. He draws a distinction between the body and the mind, and knows that he has an outer as well as an inner life. He finds that his inner life is greater, deeper, and more glorious than the outer life. The physical body, however dominant and fascinating, forms but the exterior of his personality. The intellectual, moral, aesthetic, and spiritual aspects of life are the expressions of his inner consciousness.

One special privilege of human life is the power of self-expression. It has been rightly observed that nature begets, but man creates. Man not only has the ingenuity to invent but also the creative genius of the artist. He can give aesthetic expression to his ideas, thoughts, feelings, and imagination in varied fine arts, such as architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, music, and poetry. These woks of art, more marvelous than the achievements of science, are the cherished treasures of man on earth. How poor mankind would have been without them! The cultural life of man begins with the development of the artistic ability. As  long as man is concerned only with the bare necessities of life he cannot develop art. The production of art becomes possible when man emerges from the animal-like struggle for food and learns to idealize life.

However, there are human beings no better than animals. In fact, human brutes are worse than beasts. The practice of such devilry as duplicity, hypocricy, treachery, conspiracy, and tyranny that so often marks man’s dealings with man is unknown to the animal world. The quadrupeds are incapable of such wickedness and meanness. Indeed, the poet has every reason to lament; “What man has made of man.” Nevertheless, in judging man we should take as our examples the true types of humanity and not the degenerate groups of individuals, just as an apple tree is to be judged not by the unripe, rotten, or worm-eaten fruits that the tree may bear but by those that are well-developed and typical. There have been among men such spiritual giants as Krishna, Zoroaster, the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Christ; philosophers like Kapila, Vyasa, Socrates, Plato, Plotinus, Kant, Schopenhauer; poets like Valmiki, Homer, Virgil, Dante, Kalidas, Shakespeare, Goethe, Wordsworth; artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt; scientists like Archimedes, Aryabhatta, Galileo, Newton, Einstein; monarchs like Emperor Asoka, Harun Al Rasid, Alfred the Great, Akbar; seers and saints like Sukadeva, Sankaracarya, Saint Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart, Saint Rabia, Mirabai, and so forth— to mention just a few of the world’s great personages know and unknown to history.

The crowning glory of human life is self-knowledge. Man can know himself as he really is. The body does not constitute his real self, nor the mind, nor the combination of the body and the mind. His real self, the very basis of his ego, is a self-intelligent principle. It is the knower of the body as well as of the mind. The mind cannot be self- intelligent, because the mind is known. There is something beyond that watches the mind. The mind falls into the category of the object. It should not be identified with the subject, the knower. Intelligence is the essence of the knower, and not of the known. The self-intelligent entity behind the mind, which watches all physical and mental events, is the only invariable factor in the human personality. It coordinates all physical and mental processes. It maintains the identity of man despite the incessant changefulness of the body and the mind. Unchanging, it witnesses all changes. Had it changed, it could not be the witness per se. We would have to posit another entity as the witness of this change. The witness cannot participate in the chage it witnesses. The witness must be aloof from what is witnessed. The real witness, the ultimate knower, must therefore be changless.

So the self of man is immutable. Being pure intelligence, it is self-evident. No one doubts his own existence. To him it is an axiomatic truth. “That he is” is an established fact for him. He may doubt or deny the existence of everything else, even of God, but not his own. Even in denying himself he has to affirm himself. Nothing can be affirmed or denied without presupposing the self-intelligent knower. The self must be the first thing real. The existence of nonexistence of everythng else rests on the reality of the self. It is therefore self-existent. It existed before this body originated, it will continue to exist after the body drops and disintegrates.

The self is eternal. Anything that changes is a compound, that is, made up of parts. As the self is changeless, it cannot be composite: it must be simple and formless. Contrary to matter, it is self-shining, self-existent, immutable, free, pure, and blissful. It is the spiritual basis of the phenomenal existence. The body cannot hold it, nor can the mind. It must be one with the Supreme Essence.

Such is the self of man. But through mysterious ignorance he gets identified with the body and the mind and ascribes to himself all that belong to them. Thus the unconditioned spirit becomes subject to to all physical and mental conditions. As soon as man can realize his distinctness from the psychophysical adjuncts and his oneness with the Supreme Essence, he becomes free from all bondages. The attainment of this Freedom is the highest goal of life. One can attain it even while living in the body. It is the ignorance of the true nature of the self which is the prime cause of bondage, and not the body nor the mind.

There have been great seers and saints in different climes and ages who have realized this Freedom and proclaimed it to be the Supreme End of life. So declare  certain pronouncements, “I have realized this self-effulgent Supreme Being beyond darknes. By knowing Him alone one overcomes mortality. There is no other way out.”  He who knows the Truth, becomes one with the Truth, because the Truth is his very self. You cannot objectify your own Self. You simply recognize the self. Why? Because “That thou art.”

Self-realization and God-realization are not two different experiences. In realizing the self we realize God. In realizing God we realize the self. The self and God are subjective and objective views of the same Reality, which is beyond relativity and is neither the subject nor the object. In the relative plane it is the Eternal Subject, the Soul of all souls. The direct approach to It is, therefore, through the self. This is why we seek God with closed eyes in the inmost depth of our being. In the words of Jesus Christ, “The Kingdom of God comes not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.”

The same inner approach was taught by the great German mystic Meister Eckhart, who lived from 1260 to 1328 A.D.

     To get at the core of God at His greatest, one must first get into the core of oneself at his least, for no one can know God who has not first known himself. Go to the depth of the soul, the secret place of the Most high, to the roots, to the heights, for all that God can do is focussed there.

The great Chinese sage Lao Tzu, in the sixth century B.C. spoke in a similar strain:

     Without going outside one’s door, one understands (all that takes place) under the sky; without looking out from one’s sindow, one sees the Tao of heaven. The farther one goes out (from oneself), the less one knows. Therefore the sages got their knowledge without traveling; gave the (right) names to things without seeing them and accomplished their ends without any purpose of doing so.

Man’s intrinsic divine nature and his relationship with God is the keystone of all theistic faiths. “Religion,” as defined by Vivekananda, “is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.” In other words, it is the unfoldment of man’s innate perfection. That the human soul is essentially pure and perfect is not only a fact of supraensuous experience but also the basic principle of the process of evolution. If a human being can evolve into such a divine personality as Buddha or Christ, it necessarily follows that Buddhahood of Christhood must be involved in man. If, according to the theory of evolution an amoeba is progressing towards perfection then perfection must be latent in the amoeba.

A tiny seed grows into a giant oak tree because the tree exists in the seed in potential form. The growth of a living organism means the unfoldment of its latent potency. An oak tree never emerges from an apple seed. To hold that man evolves into a godlike being and at the same time deny that Godhood is involved in man is illogical. It is but a one-sided view of the evolutionay process. Evolution presupposes involution. If perfection of Divinty be man’s goal, Divinity must be the origin of man. According to science man is a risen animal; according to religion, man is fallen spirit. The acknowledgment of involution as antecedent to evolution harmonizes the seeming conflict between scientific and religious views.

To evaluate man we should take into account not merely his physical and mental stature but his spiritual nature as well. Those who think the body and the mind to be the principal factors of human personality naturally fail to see any truth in the conception of man’s divine relationship. They argue: “Imagine the immeasurable vastness of the universe as first revealed by Copernicus. Compared to that what is this puny man! Even this terrestrial globe appears to be something like a geometrical point. What relationship can man have with the omnipotent, omniscient Ruler of the universe if any such Being exists? It is an extrme case of human conceit to trace man’s descent from God or to claim relationship with Him.” But, in fact, man is ever united with God in spirit, though he fails to recognize this, being under a spell of amnesia, as it were.

In one of the monthly magazines of America is the following interesting comment on the rude shock that man’s pretensions to divine relationship have received from scientific disovveries:

     Three men have reduced us to our proper insignificance and put an end to the primitive dream that we are godlike or that there is any God for us to resemble. They are Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud. Copernicus began the revelation of the vastness of the universe and the consequent triviality of our poor molecule of a planet. Darwin showed man’s ancestry reaching not up to the stars and their glory, but down to the mud and its fermentation. And Freud pushed our humiliation into the last pit by the knowledge that what we thought was the light of spirit is only the sickly gleams of funguses growing rank in the cellars of physiology.

It is needless to point out that these are only limited and distorted views of the human personality. If the very rudiments of human life be carnal, bestial, unholy, by no possible method of culture, by no alchemy, can they be transmuted into moral and spiritual  virtues. But the truth is that there arise among men and women certain individuals who do relize their divine nature and whose life and conduct testify to their inner experience.

The same Supreme One is the indwelling spirit in all living creatures. “I am the Self existing in the hearts of all beings,” says one source. Another philosophy, does not deny the soul, the spititual self, to any sentient being, but acknowledges infinite variations in its manifestation according to the development of each individual mind. In the human life alone the realization of the self becomes possible. It is self-knowledge of God-vision that makes man free.

Devoid of supreme devotion to the Highest, one cannot attain this Freedom by meritorious deed alone. Moral virtues, too, cannot take us beyond the relative existence. An individual may go to higher or lower planes of existence according to merits or demerits predominating in his nature. But he will come back to this human life after the effects of those deeds are exhausted. The human life alone is the sphere of action. Here you can underake fresh actions, good or bad, and also cultivate self-knowledge. It is because of this blessed privilege that human life is considered to be the highest. The human life is short and frail, no doubt; but righty lived it can serve even as the springboard to enter the Life Supreme.    

 

 

What is Life?

      Where is mankind headed, what is our purpose and the meaning of life?

   We are going toward freedom—or better, Freedom, with a capital F. Freedom is the simplest, broadest way to describe the goal of life. We all want to be free—to feel that we are unlimited, unconfined. Some of you may say, “I don’t want freedom so much as i want to find truth! The reply, is all right, but when you find truth you will discover that it is Freedom, so either word is valid. The purpose of our life is not only to find Truth, however, but to identified with it. Truth, or freedom, is not something which, having once found, one can remain apart from; it is all-absorbing, demanding our total commitment.

     Is this the purpose of every life? Are you claiming it is universal?

   Yes, from the least complicated virus to the most exalted human being, god or angel, all without exception are seeking this Freedom, aware of it or not. All are in search of Knowledge, Wisdom Truth, Joy, Reality, for these, in the last analysis, are synonyms. The whole creation is going through this intricate process of evolution for but one purpose: to get out of it and be free. Only  the ways in which we try to find the goal, differ, which is why nature is so varied in its expression. The bacterium expects to realize its freedom by escaping the clutches of the predatory virus; the giraffe extends its freedom by reaching the higher leaves with a longer neck; the politician seeks office because to him freedom means power—power to act in the ways he chooses. BUt all are reading the same basic message in these different languages………Put another way, all growth is from inside out; there is That in the heart of life—-call it God, the Atman, soul, Truth, Freedom—what you will, there is That lying latent within each of us which cannot rest until it has completely manifested itself. In order to do so it takes life after life, century upon century, age after age, wearing now the garb of the amphibian, next dressed as man and woman, again shinng as a Christ, a Buddha, until finally it wakes up and laughs at the whole thing as a wondrous dream.

       How is it we do not know that this is our goal? Why wouldn’t intelligent human beings be aware of it?

   This requires a two-stage reply. First, some are aware of it: we call them sages. Where we blindly struggle, they consciously strive toward freedom. Secondly, for the rest of us, we offer an explanation which you may think peculiar; it explains away the problem. There is a principle, which we call “maya,” a kind of universal ignarance. This principle is not something which can be fully understood; we cannot, for example, trace its origin. It is like darkness, in that when you wish to examine it, light is required, which destroys it. So, we say, Knowledge is that powerful corrosive in the presence of which ignorance cannot endure, and dissolves. We do not know how we have come under the sway of this “maya,” because even to raise that question is a sign of our ignorance; but we do know that we can get out of it. Sages have told us so, and have demonstrated it in their lives.

      If this total freedom is the goal, is each of us on our own separate track? Or does the race or society, as such, have a role to play?

   Probably both. Certainly as individuals we are on the move. And here is an important difference between evolution as understood in Darwinism and as understood in this philsophy. To the latter it is a “vertical” process. That which is called the soul, having identified itself for the time being, because of ignorance with names and forms, is struggling as it were to tear off the veils between itself and Reality. That is why, through coming to birth and dying again and again, it tries to realize itself in one kind of body after another, moving to forms that are more thinly veiled, until it reaches the human plane. There, throug the light of intelligence the soul’s ultimte awakening can take place. This is an individual process; like the bubbles at the bottom of a kettle of boiling water:  each bubble rises to its own liberation at the surface. Of couse there is the influence of one individual upon others, a nudging as it were; and given sufficient time, all the water will boil off— everyone will be liberated. Darwinism of Neo-Darwinism has conception of evolution as a horizontal or rising incline: evolution of the physical form, and by implication, of intelligence, but not the soul; and it is of the species, rather than of an indvidual. Nothing here is contrary to such an outlook, but that is not its primary orientation…….It is a mistake to think that the proponents of this system cared only for the development of the seeker and nothing for the well-being of the seciety. That is an erroneous idea which has come to the West parly from persons who never penetrated to the basic concepts of this system of thinking. Either they have not cared to do so, having interests of their own, or for some reason they have been unable. What is important is that society does not make the sovereign, independent individual its basic unit, as do we in the West. There the freedom of the human being, of which we have spoken so much here, is conceived as spiritual, not social. It is the person of self-control, of self-retraint, who is truly free, not the libertine. It is the person of righteousness, dispassion, calmness, compassion and service, who is the product coveted by the body social; hence the vast admiration for a Mother Teresa, for example. It is for the emergence of the enlightened being, that the whole of society has supposed to be organized. Social structure was a ladder by which one might climb to the heights of spiritual excellence. It was organized to produce scholars, sages, saints. Social, horizontal movement, was to be much restricted so that movement of the life-force would be upward, so far as possible. And the higher-born the person, the greater the restriction……..   The phenomena of the social organization can be understood only as we remember this basic driving motivation: the spiritual evolution of the individual, bringing with it the spiritual development of the society. Thus a kind of incubator for the production of men and women of illumination, persons of paramount character, conduct, and courtesy, free from the limitations of ignorance and desire and firmly grounded in Self-knowledge. Under this system as originally developed (though not in its present state of corruption), if one person somehow got the means, through wealth of learning or “luck,” to raise him of herself to the lvel of a higher state, then it was incumbent upon them to work for the upliftment of their entire group to the same level.

      BUt isn’t it a fact that all our external activity in the West has brought us far ahead, developmentally?

   Yes , here in the West there is a deep-seated conviction of the inevitability of progress. We think that when our cars and airplanes run faster, our houses are better heated, our computers upgraded, our housework minimized by labor-saving machines, when minimum levels of housing, health and purchasing power are guaranteed by the state or nation, then we are making progress. (What do we do, by the way, with the time saved by speed and machines?) There are now critics among us, who are seeing through the glitter of all this tinsel, and asking, if there is really any net gain in all that. It is not that such things do not betoken progress and no one today can be a Luddite. The other civilazation too, has its critcs, who feel it would be better off if it paid more attention to ideals of material welfare. But we have to understand that the basic ideal of this philosphy is different: progress must show itself in the fruits of the inner life as well. How peaceful has our mind become? How little of the world’s resources can we live on? How few are our demands upon others? How much care have we taken to bring up our children as ideal person? Have we set them the example for it? Is our mind moving daily toward greater renunciation——renunciation of possessions, desires, power, ego-claims— all the things which Death will one day take away anyway? These are tests of progress according to this system. Truth does not pay homage to society, ancient or modern, primitive or technological. Society must pay homage to Truth, or die. It is with some historical justification that the claims of this society that it has endured because in it the highest truths were made practicable. That is what makes a people great—- the corporate ability to produce men and women who have realized the highest truth. …..(more to follow later)  

 

    

   

LIFE EXPLAINED

A Geni in the distant past rubbed his lantern & a Dog appeared. He said to the dog, “Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.”    The dog said:”That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?” The Geni agreed.    The Geni rubbes the lantern again and a monkey appeared. He said to the monkey, “Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.”   The monkey said: “Monkey tricks twenty for years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten years like the dog did? The Geni agreed.”    The Geni rubbed the lantern again and a cow appeared and he told the cow, “You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves, and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.”    The cow said: “That’s kind of tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty.” The Geni agreed.    Geni rubbed the lantern again and a man appeared and he said to the man: “Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this I’ll give you twenty years.”    The man said:”Only twenty years! Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty years the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back. That makes eighty, okay?”    “Okay,” said the Geni,”You asked for it.”   So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten yars we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.    Life has now been explained to you.

consciousness

The study of consciousness is one of the most important contributions to human thought, and the question itself one of the most important we can raise. It is true the conclusions about it differ from most others. This proposal is to make it clear. Although it may seem to you that we are begging the question, these conclusions, as will be explained later, are evidenced by “direct experience.”

Let us begin with what consciousness, in its essence, is “not.”

1. It is not a “ghost,” a chimera, as supposed by behaviorists and others.
2. It is not a product or by-product of something else. This means that consciousness cannot be an epi-phenomenon, as many think it to be.
3. It is not dependent on anything else; it is not a “relation.”
4. It does not belong to time. Therefore it is ineradicable, ineluctable.
5. It does not belong to space. Therefore it is not finite.
6. It is not substance, obviously, although we can speak of it that way in contrast to “form,” where all change takes place.
7. It is not an object of knowledge or experience.
8. It is not “life” (which is usually characterized as reactive, complex, purposive, unpreditable).
9. It is not “mind” as that word is used by most Western thinkers and writers.
10. It is not the field of attention of the psychoanalysts, which is only one aspect of consciousness. These points will be discussed below.

Then What is It?

A bold assertion is made here that it cannot be a “what,” an object: therefore even to ask “what is consciousness” is illogical. The cosmology of this system tells us that what we are perceiving in our present state of ignorance, through the mind and senses, is the supposed combination of “our real essence” and matter. It is termed the knot tied between “our real essence” or consciousness and the inert, or physical, matter. (chid/jada granthi). Now if you think well about this you will reach the conclusion that such a knot could never be tied for they cannot in any way be put together.

Therfore, as this system conceives it, our business or that of any “seeker,” is to “untie” this alleged knot, to extricate, as it were, consciousness from its apparent accretions. We are to “rescue” our consciousness. (If this language seems self-contradictory—-for we are speaking of it as an object—-do not worry; the situation always seems paradoxical and contradictions crop up until the mind can begin to grasp its finer implications.)

This system asserts that we can stop all the changes which appear to be rippling the surface of consciousness.

A diagram by way of illustration

First, a word here about paradigms, formulas and diagrams. They can be useful pedagogic devices. We attempt, by symbol and objectification, to give approximations of the situation in ways such that our unelightened mind can have some intuitive grasp of the truth which just now seems beyond it. It is true that an entrapped consciousness can never solve its own problem; it has to see that it was never trapped; but this is not easy. The mistake made by easy forms of advice, is in their failure to provide the stepping-stones we need to cross this river of ignorance and the impetus to make the leaps. This diagram is a stepping-stone. In this schema conciousness is shown as the Ultimate, the universal medium in which the entire universe is suspended, so to say. This may seem an unwarranted assumption, but we should be aware that we are making assumptions about ourselves all the time——“without the body I do not exist,”…”my mind is separate from other minds,” etc.

Let this sheet of paper represent pure consciousness.

A large circle drawn on this sheet of paper represents “you” or “me,” any individual.

Thus do we circumscribe, as it were, that which is undivided and indivisible. Within this large circle, are three other circles, representing the consciousness of our full twenty-four hours, we go through three principal phases, each quite different from the other: the waking state, the dream state and the state of dreamless sleep. Just as the space in each small circle is a portion of the space of the large circle, so is the consciousness attributed to the individual as a whole superimposed on the underlying universal Conciousness. (The Sanskrit word is turiya) This means that when I suppose that in dreamless sleep I am “unconscious,” this cannot really be true; there was a witness consciousness there, observing the absence of mentation. Otherwise how could I reprt on awakening, that I slept deeply, with no dreams, and am now refreshed? The Upanishads also argue that the reappearance, after deep sleep, of dreaming and a waking world, along with the sense of one’s own ego, cannot have come from nothing.

Likewise, this witness consciousness underlies our dreaming, and our functioning in the waking state. We have chosen, over years to ignore it, and come not to believe in its existence.

We can regain awareness of this witness-consciousness, it is mentioned, through meditation and other practices, and with persistence, recognize it as the Ultimate, the Absolute. Also words “Being” and “Bliss” are mentioned, to indicate it.

Above are mentioned meditation and “other practices.” Here are some examples of the sort of examination and discernment employed by those who follow a the method of knowledge or reason (jnana) for realizing this goal.

All sense data are to be scrutinized. The senses are reckoned as five. In Western philosophy the discrimination is made between the primary qualities of an object and the secondary ones. Here, we mentally eliminate not only these, but all, qualities from the object: on one level its form, on another, its name. (nama & rupa) What remains when all name and form has been subtracted is the “thing in itself,” so familiar to us through Emanuel Kant—except Kant failed to realize that the “thing- in-itself,” is the same as “me-in-mySelf,” a fact which can be discovered only by personal experience. By continually separating the subject from every perception in the objective field, we are not long in discovering that our own body, sense and motor organs,  even our mind—-belong to the field of object, not subject. When every aspect and function of the mental operation also has been separated out, “Pure Consciousness,” alone remains as subject—-or better, beyond all subject-object relationship—-and “I am That.” In our diagram above this is what we have called the sheet of paper.

In this waking state where we try so hard to satisfy our needs and desires, somehow we come up short; the senses tire, the mind too, and we say the body and mind need rest in sleep.

What can we learn from the dream state?

In dream we do not know that we are dreaming; this defines it; otherwise it moves into lucid draming, which is anotther story. Not only do we not know that we are dreaming, but all judgments about our dreams are made upon waking up, and from the waking state. Such is the biological-fatigue theory, the Freudian wish-fulfillment expanations and the Jungian system of symbolized message and so on. Here too, it is enunciated by persons in the waking state, but what it says is that we dream in order to escape the (ego-imposed) limitaions of consciousness which we experience in the waking state due to identification with the body. The latter is simply not adequate to give us the play we need, to express the freedom we crave so much.

Who has not, in dreams, jumped from heights without injury, traveled miles under water, made enemies evaporate, accomplished unimagined and unbelievable feats—in short, everything we cannot do here, awake. Waking, we call dreams nonsense (or hidden messages) but we did not do so at the time of the dream. So far as our awareness was concerned, the world we roamed in was real at that ime, or we neglected to enquire if it was real. this is important to remember when we come to our analytic conclusions. A friend who told me that he was examining his dream world, and a doubt crept into his mind: “Is this a dream or not? No, everything here is quite reasonable, logical, not incongruous: it has to be not dream.” Then he awoke, remembering what he had dreamt, and saw it had all been most unreasonable. This was his waking judgment. One moment of “lucidity” had come and the rest followed.

It will be clear to you, then, that in this study of consciousness the philosophical and psychological significance of the dreaming and waking phases is of more import than the content of dreams.

And from dreamless sleep?

Let us turn to sleep without dreams. (sushupti), deep sleep. If, as we just said, our mind is baffled  by trying to satisfy itself through the organs of the waking state, and attempts (and succeeds) through dreams in gaining greater scope for the ego and the sense of freedom, it is also true that eventually it tires of this also. Like a bird at the close of day, weary of beating its wings, settles down toward its nest, say the “Upanishads,” so does our mind let go of its dream world and the ego lapses into a condition where self-awareness seens to be absent. This is where we make a mistake. There is really no un-consciousness. If our diagram has been clear to you, this should be also: in that state Consciousness remains—-the eternal under girder of all its phases. This “Turiya” is the light that can never go out. Yes, the curtain has fallen in the theatre, no more drama today on the stage; but you the Witness are sitting there in the empty theatre, seeing the (temporary) absence of thoughts, knowledge, mind, ego. And so you think, “I was inconscious.” Yes, that which say “I,” thinks “I,” was not in play. But what the “Upanishads” say is that this residual basic consciousness, where mind, intellect and ego have disappeared, is our “Pure Essence,” our true “Self.”

What glory is there in that, you say? It is darkness; no one is there! At present it is darkness to us, because ego and all our othe personal faculties are in abeyance and will return and bring us once more to dream and to waking, and to the fundamental ignorance which shadows our life. The large circle still defines our individuality. Until that line is dissolved, through meditation and other exercises, we shall not be able to experience the “Witness Consciousness” as “Light.“  Nevertheless, we are assured, that just as a person may walk every day over buried treasure and not know it, so do we enter into the embrace of the Supernal Light and, through our ignorance, call it dreamless sleep.

Now a final point: “Turiya,” the “fourth,” the consciousness which transcends, underlies and permeates the three phases of our day and night, can be looked at from the limited standpoint of one or more of those states; we can also understand, a little, how it must look to itself: no small circles, no margins, no limitations, no shadows or superimpositions; to itself it is all-pervading, always without ignorance, the essence of freedom; it is in fact, not dirrerent from the “Ultimate Reality.”

Summary

We took up the controversial (some may call it the delicate) subject of Consciousness, and we have put out in clear terms exactly how it is regarded: as ultimate, primeval, ineluctable, unchanging, infinite, undivided, full of light and bliss. This system boldly declares it as non-different from the Godhead and inseparable from us through every moment of our existence.

We began by distinguishing what consciousness is not; then proceeded to analyze its unvarying presence in and under the superimpositions of body and mind and by this means to get us to arrive at an intellectual grasp of the matter, at least, if no a breakthrough into experiencing It as It truly is. Through devoted meditation and persistent discernment we make that glimpse a firm and permanent experience….