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Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
I was thinking about the art and process of self-realization or God-realization or experience. Is it actually a religious process of purity, sublimity and piety? Or is it a process of attention, refinement and the very subtle process of perception? The first relates to the mind and the second relates to the intelligence. And I was wondering, why in spite of there being lakhs and millions of devotees on the one hand, and maybe hundreds of seekers, spiritual seekers on the other, the required progress and fulfillment, they are not transpiring, what is the reason? I have been thinking about it.
It is true that our mind and heart have a great deal to play in this inner process. But it is inevitable that we understand the intelligence and its application also are very important. If we are able to combine and blend beautifully, the feelings and emotions of the mind with the sharpness and perceptive skill of the intelligence, the whole subject will be far better understood, pursued and attained.
Just see, the entire world is made up of panchabhutas. These panchabhutas are by themselves in a graded manner. We have got the solid forms of existence like earth, and many other planets and celestial bodies. We also have fluid substances, then gaseous substances. Thereafter it is different forms of energy like heat, light, magnetism, electromagnetic waves, we also have space. Wherever you go, you will encounter only these. But besides these and in addition to these, there is something which has got the power of creativity. This creativity characterized by sentience, the ability to cognize, respond to, react, understand, plan, scheme etc. That is there no doubt, in the world. In fact, the human being is the best evidence for it and the best specimen of that.
When do you say there is a life form? When that unit is able to respond to and react to external stimuli. This comes from the sentience, the sentient part of existence. And this you can find only in living beings but it is available for examination and enquiry in the human alone. Our body is a combination of panchabhutas. But all the panchabhutas are inert and insentient. In such a body, there is a presence, a power, that animates and activates the body. That power is what we call sentience. I don’t think you can doubt the presence of such a thing. That sentience gives rise to a number of functions. When I say that the sentience itself has formulated our body, shaped our different sensory organs like the eye, the ear, the nose etc. I don’t know whether you will understand it, accept it and act upon it. Let that point remain there.
This sentience animates the body and activates the different parts. So, it gives rise to bodily and sensory actions. It gives rise to the inner different types of actions and vibrations like thought, feeling, memory, doubt, enquiry, understanding, finding, then desire, dislike, all these subtle things it produces. It produces wakefulness, sleep, dream. There is a presence inside us that produces all these things. It is the source of all. You will agree with me when I say that your senses are activated by it. No problem. It also produces thoughts and feelings - that also you will accept. You will also accept that it produces doubts, enquiries, knowledge, finding etc. That also you will accept. If you are accepting all these things, how can you miss the source of these? I think the question is very important.
What is the source from which internal cognitional activities and vibrations like feelings, emotions and the like, take place? And the same source gives rise to physical and sensory activities also. So that source is not merely the source for physical processes but metaphysical or non-physical spiritual processes also. You are dealing with thoughts. You are moving with feelings. Feelings you know, thoughts you know, doubt you know, understanding you know. How is it that you miss the source of these? Is there anybody here who says, "I don’t think."? Your thought you alone know. Nobody else knows. How is it that you know the thought, but you miss the thinking process? How is it that you miss the thinker? Without a thinker, there cannot be a thinking process. Without a thinking process there cannot be a thought. Thought you feel and know and interact with. But how do you miss the thinking process which generates the thoughts? And how do you still miss the thinker from whom the thinking process commences and prevails? When I think of it in this manner I find, it is no more for the mind. It is a subject for the intelligence. Your intelligence must be sharp, must be subtle, must be perceptive. And it must be focused on your own within.
Please answer me. If you are agreeable that you have feelings, how dare you miss the source of feeling? You are walking with the legs but you don’t miss the legs. You are speaking with the tongue but you are very conscious of the tongue. An action cannot be without an actor. The action we are constantly given to and we recognize, but the actor we miss. Where there is an action, there must be the actor. If there is walking, there must be the legs. If there is talking, there must be the tongue. If there is a movement, there must be a substance which moves. If this principle is applied, how is it that you are conscious of your feelings, but you miss the source of feelings? The same source produces the inner, inner processes and the outer sensory processes. How can you miss that substance, substance, that substance, that mind substance, how do you miss? But all your mentations you understand. At this point of time, I feel that one has to be perceptive and you should constantly focus on it.
People meditate. And in the meditation suddenly you say, “Swamiji, my mind becomes blank.” What is this? When you say, "There is no light.", what is the meaning? You see darkness. The same eyes which see light, they are the same eyes which see darkness also. So, darkness is an object of vision for the eye. Light also is another object for the eye. It is not sufficient if you say there is no light. But there is darkness. It is not sufficient if there is darkness alone, if you say. The darkness is the absence of light. So, how can you reach a state of blankness? What is meant by blankness? There is no thought, there is no feeling, there is no knowledge, nothing. Now, there is something there by seeing which you say, "Nothing else is there." Why are you reporting about it in a negative manner saying that "Nothing is there, therefore it is blank."?
What is blank? "It" is blank. What is that “it”? Relative pronoun “it”, you use it. So, some presence is there which you describe as blank and negatively compared to your thoughts, feelings, emotions, knowledge, doubt, memory etc. These things not being there, it does not mean that some other presence is not there. So, you must be able to say it is not blank but it is a presence. And that presence is the source of all feelings, emotions and knowledge. How do you miss that presence? It is the source of everything. You are interacting with all the effects it produces. At the same time, you are missing the source or the cause of these things.
At this point I feel, it is a question of the intelligence becoming sharp and refined enough to focus within oneself and unearth the source of thought, feeling and emotions. Every one of you should think about it. This is what in terms of religion and devotion we say, God is omnipresent. The omnipresent God is first and last in you. And what is in you is God alone. So, the best way of accessing Him and feeling Him is to locate Him and feel Him as the presence in your heart. He is the closest to you. And the world is distant from you. Your body is also distant from you. Everything is distant. The closest is God Himself. What a beautiful thought is this? Why not people capitalize it, make use of it?
Srimad Bhagavata repeatedly says, "Install God in your heart and bind His feet with the cord of love." With the cord of love bind His feet. Go on tying His feet as long as you want, as much as you want, generating the strand of love. That means it is not a physical strand which you can buy from the market. You have to generate it. Tie His feet so that He cannot escape. What is the trouble in doing so? Immediately people will say, “Swamiji, it is difficult.” What difficulty? There is no difficulty at all! I think it should be a great revelation for you and you should jump at it. “Oh! God! His feet are to be tied in my heart using the cord of love. Wow. Very good. I will do it.” You know what prevents you from doing it? Because you don’t want it.
Between God and the world, you want the world but not God. That is the problem. Better say that. Don’t say it is difficult. “I don’t want it, Swamiji. I will postpone it for ten years. I am in America. I am in Frankfurt. I am in Switzerland. I am in Holland. I want to live there for a few more years. Then let me increase my resources. Then I shall come back. Then I will think of it.”
Don’t say it is difficult. It is the most easy, facile, beautiful and self-inspiring.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.