Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

Last night during the satsang I was mentioning something about the first point that Krishna was making in describing the vibhūtīs pertaining to the paramātmā. I am reminded of what Kathopanishad says. Yama tells Nachiketas.

See, we are all human beings. We don’t know when the humans first set their feet upon this earth. Right from that time, this is not merely applicable to humans; this is applicable to all living beings - What is meant by birth into this world? Birth into this world is the child coming from the mother’s womb and touching the earth in one manner or the other to be exposed to the atmosphere around. That very contact with the outside atmosphere, that contact, it is a point of contact at the level of the skin on the one hand, thereafter maybe nose, then maybe the ear, tongue etc. Right from the beginning our body itself is evolved, it is shaped in the mother’s womb only to contact and thereby have interactions with the objects of the world. This is a point that I would like you to repeatedly think and understand. It may not suddenly get impressed in your mind.

Parāñci khāni vyatṛṇat svayambhooḥ. Call it either nature or God. They created senses. What is our body? Our body is something like a house in which five sensory organs, organs of knowledge and five senses, organs of action, jñānendriyās and karmendriyās are fixed. So our body is actually a trunk so to say for the ten sensory organs to be present. And to make them functional we keep the body by food, nourishment, breadth and what not.

So birth into this world is to have ten sensory organs working on our body. All the ten sensory organs particularly the knowledge organs like eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, they are meant only parāñci, only to have outgoing capacity and expression. They are there only to contact the outside objects.

In all our interactions, the interactions do not take place one millimeter away from the senses. If we have interactions with the world, all the interactions are in the way of contacts at the point of the senses. The light rays coming reflected from the objects near as well as far, unless these reflected light rays come and contact the cornea there will be no sight or colour at all.

The same applies to the sound. The sound waves or sound vibrations will have to come and touch the ear drum. The same applies to smell. The same applies to tongue and skin. So all our interactions are taking place at the level of the body at the level of the senses in the way of contacts. The senses are contacted by whom? - By the objects of the world. All the objects of the world are gross and external.

So we are born into this world with a set of organs which have only an outgoing capacity. Please understand this.

Tasmāt – therefore.

Parāṅ-paśyati nāntarātman’, right from the beginning after birth, our contacts and interactions being outward and with the outside objects, there is no opportunity for us to think of looking inside at all! That is our problem. We don’t have an organ to look inside. All our organs are outward in character. So the entire knowledge that human being has as well as seeks is of the outside, outside and outside.

This being the case, all are looking into the outside world. But poor man, he is a fool! Why is he a fool? Do you know why? Because the urge to look into the outside, the power that propels the senses, employs the senses to make them functional, that is not outside, that is inside. What a wonder is this!

If my eyes are seeing, they cannot see at all! Something inside the body namely the mind, for the time being call it the mind, the mind has to alert the eyes, employ the eyes and then look at the direction we want. So the direction, employment etc. given to the senses, the direction given to the senses, the employment of the senses themselves, all these are done by inside.

What more? Something more. After employing the senses when the contacts take place, the results of the contacts are imprinted by the mind, in the mind. So, all our experiences are inward. No experience is there at the level of the senses at all!

Suppose a sleeping man, his eyes are gently opened and a flower or something like that is shown, you take away the object, close his eye lids, allow him to sleep without disturbance. Next morning you ask him “Have you seen the object?” He will say “No.” What does it mean? It means very clearly that the senses are only instruments in the matter of gaining perceptions and experiences. Experience, perception by itself is not sensory, is not external, it is not taking place at the level of the senses. It is taking place at the non-sensory, supra-sensory level within the body in the level of the mind. So all experiences are mental, inner and inner alone.

This being the case, man remains in total ignorance as to how these senses are shaped. The senses are not shaped by any outside agency. Within the womb, the original single cell or maybe two cells, they start multiplying, multiplying, multiplying, multiplying, and the entire growth takes place within the womb. And all the senses are made by the power and presence within the body. No external force interferes there. The fetus perhaps requires only nourishment from the mother’s blood.

So can you imagine? The senses are themselves shaped by the power and presence within the body and they are constantly being employed by the mind and whatever contacts are taking place, they are all registered in the form of imprints by the mind and kept by the mind, used by the mind. So the experience is inner and inward. The knowledge is inner, the memory is inner, the whole process is inner.

That the body exists is a cognition or an awareness by the mind, in the mind, of the mind. In sleep you are not aware of the body nor are you aware of the senses or of the world. Everything is reduced into zero. When you wake up you are aware of the body. The senses are alerted, activated, the interactions follow. In the same way as the interactional waking state rises, in the same manner it is completely wiped off and you go into sleep, and that too for six or eight hours a day. Just see what is the beauty?

Parāñci khāni vyatṛṇat svayambhūḥ. The self born power. It created the senses. Tasmat, therefore, because of the outgoing capacity of the senses, man sees only the outside glory, the outside display. But in reality, this outside is not an independent existence. It is only relative. If the mind is not there, there is nobody to look at outside at all. The outside and inside are ideas and notions produced by the mind. Otherwise there is no outside.

Kaścid-dhīraḥ, this being the case very rarely does one, dhīraḥ means intelligent man. Pratyagātmānamaikṣad. Oh, I see. My eyes cannot see or be employed by themselves. There is something inside. There is somebody who propels the eyes, propels the senses. The same power that propels the mind to think propels the eyes also to see, the ears also to hear. So what is this whole jugglery? Is there any outside at all?

Outside becomes relevant only when I think of inside. All my perceptions are belonging to the perceiver. The perceiver is not the body, it is inside the body. All experiences belong to the experiencer. I may see an object. It is ‘I’ who see. The seer is not the object. The object is the seen, the visible. I am different. And that ‘I’ is within the body. It is supra-bodily and supra-sensory. In this way he starts thinking, enquiring. Exactly in the same manner Newton started thinking about why the apple was falling. One year it took for him to understand it was because of the gravitational pull of the earth. Apple has nothing to do there. If the gravitational force were not there, the apple would have remained there itself where it is.

So,

Kaścid-dhīraḥ pratyagātmānamaikṣad-āvṛttachakṣur-amṛtatvam-icchan

He started becoming introspective, he started introspecting like Newton, “Why should the apple fall? Why does it not flee? What is the reason? All apples are falling downward, vertically. So there must be a relationship between where it falls and where it stands. Apple is very small. Earth is very huge. So, possibly the cause of falling rests with the earth. What is that force? It is after all inert. Does it still have some other force to exist, exert?” In this way he started thinking.

So, āvṛttachakṣur-amṛtatvam-icchan. A point of introspection arose for him and he started thinking “Oh! It is not outside just being felt by itself. The outside is felt by the inside. There is something called inside, a notion, outside, another notion. Both are ideas within the mind. Mind itself is supra-material, supra-bodily, supra-sensory.” In this way he started thinking and ultimately hits at the self, he(Yama) says.

What a wonderful statement! So you should not be surprised if you are not interested in spirituality because we are born here to be interested only in the outside world and materiality. But if at all anybody takes a turn inside, it is because amṛtatvam-icchan. All the things in this world are ephemeral, evanescent and fleeting. Fleetingness will not give us the permanent joy we need. So we want an assurance, a permanent, a kind of a fixity, these are not characteristics or potentials of any sensory perception or sensory object. Therefore, man gets a clue. “This is not where I should focus my attention. My interest should be different. Where is that which will give me something like a constancy, so to say?”

When this enquiry starts it becomes irresistible. The hunger of the mind cannot be appeased so easily. Unless you appease that hunger, the man who has the mind will not be restful at all. Therefore the seeking becomes intense and he finally hits upon his own inner presence, the supreme reality, the antarātmā.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.