Articles for Saadhana

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

Yesterday I had a telephone call from Pankaj Bhatia who is the president of the CIRD North America. It was particularly about one point, about the logo that we have. The second Bhagavad Gita Global Convention we are going to hold in George Mason University in Washington DC on 15th and 16th of September. They are preparing the brochure to be released shortly.

He was asking me whether our logo should be put because there is another photograph showing Krishna etc. He was describing that also as a logo. I said, “Where are two logos? One is a picture, a depiction that you are putting as part of the brochure. This is a logo that is generally put in every literature that we are releasing, books etc. This has nothing to do with other one, this is a must.”

“But there is ‘Om’ there.”

“What is the harm in having ‘Om’? ॐ is not a religious symbol at all! ‘Om’ is actually what? It is a combination of three syllables. ‘A’, ‘U’ and ‘M’. These three syllables put together represent the entire gamut of knowledge articulated by our mouth. It is the symbol of the Supreme Reality called Brahman or Ātma. There is very good discussion about this in one of the Upanishads.

We have not taken anything in the way of a superhuman power or a God who is above the clouds and heavens. No, nothing like that. This is a reference to human personality and the three states of awareness that we have. Everything in this world is only within the three states of awareness. The external, objective world is a product and outcome of our wakefulness. Wakefulness is not of the world, it is ours, ours, and ours.

When I refer to the world, I refer to the world which I perceive during my wakeful state. My wakeful state is not a constant or all-through state. As I wake up, I also recede from it to go into sleep. So wakefulness is not a twenty-four hours state; maximum it can be for sixteen or seventeen hours. Then everyone will have to go into sleep. So as the wakefulness dawns or arises in one, it also sets in himself bringing about sleep.

And during the sleep, we sometimes enter into another internal, personal, individual state called dream. The dream and wakeful are alike with one difference, wakefulness has got commonness as its note. All of us together can be wakeful and we see the same world in the same manner, through our senses which are similar and alike. But in the case of dream, it is purely individualistic. Very rarely, two people dream alike. One person may be dreaming, another may be wakeful by the side, a third may be asleep and the dream is related to the individual alone. There is no commonness about it.

The difference between the wakeful state and the dream state is that the dream is within the body, the wakefulness is apparently outside the body. Because it is outside the body, there are gross objects and products in the wakeful state. Say earth is solid and gross, water is also liquid and gross; air also is to some extent gaseous and gross. Then we have energy in the form of heat and light so far as fire is concerned. Then we have space also, to some extent the space also is objective and visible to the senses. But inside the body, nothing is visible or perceptible to the senses. Because it is within the gross body, it can only be subtle.

So one difference between the dream and wakefulness is that in wakefulness you have the display of gross objects, in dream you have the display of only subtle objects. The city I dream, the vehicles in which I travel, the destinations I reach, the hotels one goes into to have his food, all these are only within the body. Within the gross body another gross object cannot be, it has to be subtle. So the entire dream is individualistic, then completely subtle. Even the gross objects you encounter in dream are really subtle.

Now all the three (states) are produced by the same human. What did I say? All the three are produced by the same human. It is the human’s expression; he is a three-state man, wakefulness, dream and sleep. If we can make a symbol of this for our understanding and interaction, ‘Om’ denotes or represents this. ‘Om’ is not representing God! Because it does not represent God, it is not religious! It is a purely rational, philosophical and spiritual representation.

We have made ‘Om’ as a symbol of the Supreme Reality. The Supreme Reality expresses itself in three states. Now the question is how are three states had? Wakefulness is there, it rises in me, sets in me. So I am there, only then I can express myself in the waking state. Between the wakefulness and myself, you tell me who is first? I am first; that is why I wake up. In the same manner, I cease to be wakeful and go to sleep. Once wakefulness has disappeared, who brings the sleep? Then again, who terminates the sleep and goes into dream? Terminating the dream goes into wakefulness again.

So apart from the states wakefulness, dream and sleep, there must be a fourth factor which remains unchanged as the substratum of the three and then brings it and sends it away, transits from wakefulness to sleep, from sleep to dream and from dream to wakefulness. That there is such a factor is very clear from rational analysis. That it is there is very clear from our experience because we relate all the three states to the ‘I’. I woke up, I slept, I dreamt and I woke up. So the ‘I’ is a self-experienced phenomenon or fact.

Now the Avasthatraya philosophy says that, the three are remaining separate - wakefulness, sleep and dream. If you are able to combine in your understanding all the three just like ‘A’, ‘U’ and ‘M’. What are they? ‘A’, ‘A’ ‘aah’, you can open your mouth and produce the sound in any manner you like. So it expresses the full expanse. This wakefulness is such an expanse. So it tells you that wakefulness is the expansive form of the ‘I’ and sleep is the totally contracted and shrunk expression of the ‘I’ and dream is an internal and invisible subtle expanse. Wakefulness is an external, gross expanse, its mirror reflection is the dream. All the three are manifested and displayed by the ‘I’.

‘A’ represents wakefulness, ‘U’, see the lips, the lips are almost nearly closing. So the entire dream is within you. It is not an external expanse; it is internal. And the sleep state is ‘M’, you can hear but you cannot make out anything from there. If you ask me a question I can say, ‘M’, it can mean yes. I can also say ‘M’, it can mean no. Except that it is a sound, you cannot make out anything there. Our sleep is also indistinct like that. We don’t know anything about it but we have.

Now if you are able to combine the three, as you have combined the three syllables, ‘A’, ‘U’ and ‘M’, ‘Om’, ‘Om’, ‘A’ + ‘U’ will be ‘O’ + anuswara ‘M’ = ‘Om’. In the same manner, you can combine the wakefulness, dream and sleep and find out the fourth. They cannot themselves combine; one has to combine it. Who combines it? The ‘I’ combines them. ‘Om’.

Now our symbol ‘Om’ is actually a very rational and logical symbol of the Supreme Reality which is denoted by the term ‘I’. There is no reference to God. There is no reference to a ritual or a ceremony. And there is no imagination like Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara etc. It is purely empirical, experiential, experiential, pragmatic and pragmatic.

I said, “Then what is the trouble in using the ‘Om’? If necessary, we shall give a foot note.” He said, “I never understood this.” We can do it.” I thought of mentioning it to you this.

This philosophy is called Avasthatraya philosophy. But in Kolkata when I happened to read and think about it, I thought I would like to give a name. The name is Experientialism. There is a philosophy called Existentialism, I would like to call it Experientialism - The Philosophy of Experientialism.

Our life is full of experiences. Experience itself undergoes a mystic transformation in us and becomes knowledge and memory. Without experience there cannot be a knowledge nor memory. Experience is the core of our life.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.