Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

Today I will keep my eyes open. Look at me.

How to make you understand the simple but comprehensive nature of spirituality? See, you have come here and you are staying. So we generally have a session at 10.30 and in the evening. Then we will have the morning and the evening (prayers), then Prabhata Rashmi. We have a number of books. The stay in the Ashram is actually unlike staying with a guest, staying in house, staying in a holiday inn or anything like that.

Right from the morning, when we wake up, we start interacting with objects which I mentioned earlier. But I would like you to understand. We are lying, we open our eyes, we become aware of the body, open our eyes, we see the roof, interaction. We get up, go to the toilet, wash our teeth, take our bath etc. All are interactions. In the interactions throughout, my dear son, please understand this, spend some time and use your intelligence - Interactions are always with the objects. Everything is with the objects, and all the objects are, generally speaking lifeless, inert, whether it is the door, floor, earth, except people like us. These interactions are done not because of the object, because of the interacting ‘Subject’.

Any action follows from an actor. This much you understand? Work denotes an action. An action must have a source, actor. Action is a face of expression of the actor. So, can you ever think of an action without the subject? The subject decides to act and it begins to. Now in the process, it can be a subjective action or an interaction. When it becomes an interaction, we have the object coming in. Whether it is an interaction or a proto action, the action always belongs to the subject. Will you understand this? But throughout our wakeful hours, the subject’s interaction becomes object dominated. Do you understand? We are getting dominated by the objects, dominated by the objects. We are missing the subject. The subject is so to say eaten up and devoured by the objects.

Actually, no object is superior to the subject. The subject is the real interactor. If the subject were not there, interactions with the objects will not take place. So any interaction is designed and proceeded inside by the mind. It also rests and subsists on the mind. It concludes also in the mind. Are you able to follow?

The source of interaction is the subject. It begins to interact. So it is designed and initiated by the subject. During the interaction, it subsists on the subject. Suppose I talk to you. The subject part of it becomes indifferent. Then my talk will stop. The scene will stop. So it subsists on the subject. And when it is concluded, it is concluded by the subject, remains as a knowledge and memory and the subject uses it. The object doesn’t use it.

So throughout our interactions, the subject is the sole point. But we are not aware of it. We are devoured by the objects. So the interactions are a losing proposition for us. What we want is a subject infusion into the interactions. What happens is, the objects get infused into the subject and the subject gets dimmed, dimmed, dimmed. You live for decades and you don’t know what you are but you know many things, many other things. The subject part is never remembered. Objects alone are remembered. Actually, the truth is that no object ever enters into your inside. The subject alone takes an imprint of the object and that imprint is what you are interacting with. Is it clear?

When I see you, you don’t get inside my body. I make an imprint, my mind makes an imprint of you and that imprint is what I see. So the whole affair is the subject. But alas! We feel it is all the object. This is the delusion that we suffer from. The subject and the object are opposed to each other. But we are imposing on the subject the object and we are imposing the subject on the object, vice versa. That you may not readily understand.

So in the Ashram, what happens is we are trying to make the people conscious about the subject, subject, subject, subject. We tell them don’t be devoured by the object. Infuse your subject into the object and don’t get infused by the object. Now I am now discussing Bhagavad Gita. What is this Bhagavad Gita? Bhagavad Gita is a discussion which tries to infuses into you, instills into you, the greatness, glory, splendor and magnificence of the subject. What are the subject items? Mind, intelligence, ego and finally the soul. This is something that you never think about during your life.  Not you, everyone. So will you understand?

So any trouble, any torment, any lack, any deficiency that you have, all these can be set right by the subject infusion. Suppose people are depressed and they are given a medicine, what is this medicine? It is a material product. It is given to the body. It acts on the body. But the depression is caused by the mind. So what drug is there to act on the mind? The material drugs will only act on the material body. Nothing acts on the mind. Then how does the drug work? I cannot explain it fully but to the extent I know, in the expressional level, the mind needs the body. That body and bodily part is suppressed, subdued etc. See! It is not a treatment to the real source. Do you understand it?

Now in our case, what happens is we are telling you that all problems, all torments of the mind, not only you, all torments, they are created by the mind, though seemingly we feel it is created by the world. But it is created by the mind. This mind is a functional unit of the consciousness of the soul. So try to draw upon the soul more and more, more and more, more and more, and dissolve and cure your mental maladies. It is 100 percent possible. But many people achieve it by faith. The intelligent people crumble. Faithful people achieve it fast but the intelligent people refuse to grasp it. That is why I thought of talking about it.

See what is this Bhagavad Gita! What did Krishna do? Krishna did not pat Arjuna. He did not say, “Let us have a cup of Coca Cola”. He did not say that. He did not say, “Let us smoke for a while.”. No. He only questioned and examined the grief itself that Arjuna was suffering from. He made it a point of enquiry and gave Arjuna an identity. What is that identity? Not the bodily identity which tells you, “It was born, it will die, and you will remain during, between birth and death.” No, you are somebody if you are existing now, you were existing earlier and if you were, you are, you will be. So never speak about death or extinction. Arjuna grasped it. He said, “I will never speak about killing or death”. And he did not. Just see, how?

So what was done was, the merits, the grace, the splendor, the brilliance of the subject were instilled into the mind. So your stay here should be a process of infusion from the subject into the mind as opposed to, when you go to see a football, when you go to see anything in the world, we are all imprinted with the objects. What objects? All are inert, what can they do? But here the infusion comes from the subject. That subject is all-sentient, is feeling full, experience-full, soul consciousness. Even a speck of it will change a man.

I am speaking in Asianet. How many people write to me saying that, “Swamiji, our life has changed. Why did you not appear in our life 15 years back? Now we have lived our life. We can only wish and pray that our children become enlightened.” The whole people who have lost their husbands, lost their children, lost this, lost that ,many many many problems, they say. And what do I do? I only speak. Are you able to understand? Does it make sense to you?

So my dear son, what happens in the Ashram is, we are trying to generate, instill and imbue into you an infusion of the subject’s greatness, glory into the mind. I am not telling you about the greatness of the Niagara waterfall. I am not saying anything like that. I only say, that our mind has tremendous potential and resources. Our intelligence is very very great and powerful. Make the intelligence interact with the mind to resolve the problems of the mind. And the intelligence itself should draw all that it wants from the soul which is absolutely unaffected and unconditioned. So this is an interaction between the soul and the mind using the tool of intelligence. Because I can only make you conscious of it, using my intelligence which conveys knowledge and your intelligence which is ready to receive knowledge. And what is involved in the process - Enrichment of the mind, elevation of the mind, empowerment of the mind, expansion. I would like to say, rarefication and subtlety of the mind. With every word it will take place because a word contains knowledge. I release something through my word, what do I release? So this is a point, you think about and you understand.

So I want your stay in the Ashram to be just like filling a bottle with milk. It is getting filled. Similarly, your inner personality should get filled with the subject’s grace and grandeur, with the soul’s. Can you ensure it?

Harih Om Tat Sat. Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.