Articles for Saadhana

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

Today I want to say something about how will you bring about this spiritual growth and enrichment. Something special about our country is that all our eternal literature is in poetry. In Kolkata, I was giving lecture in the Sankara Institute of Philosophy and Culture. I generally talk in an extempore manner and at one point I was saying that it is the greatness of India that all different branches of knowledge have been pronounced in poetry. One person sitting in the audience literally jumped when I said it.

So, after I concluded my talk, he told me, “Swamiji, today you said something which was very very surprising and enlightening. There was a conference in California, in America where they debated the subject of poetry and science. They said science is a projection and pursuit of intelligence. Poetry is an outpouring of the heart. The two can be parallel but they can never be together. This is the conclusion they arrived at. Now you have said that all the different branches of knowledge in our country have been written in poetry. This is totally against the finding that they have arrived at.”

You take medicine, astronomy, astrology, finance, economy, history, dance, drama, music, philosophy, everything has been written in poetry. How they rendered into poetry every branch of knowledge is really a surprise. One thought that comes to my mind is that they did not read these subjects purely as an intellectual indulgence. They took to this life as a wholesome dedication and affinity. We have got a book containing 12,000 verses on elephant science. Hastyāyurveda is the name of the book. These elephants were used in our army. We have Chaturanga Sena – human beings, horses, elephants, chariots. All these together are called four angās, Chatur-anga.

Elephant used to be one wing of our army (defense forces). I think this elephant has got very special feature. It will attack the other animal. The tuskers never walk together. They always walk in a single manner. When they meet, they will fight. They don’t like to stand together. In our festival, they are made to stand together. They don’t like it. They don’t like anybody to touch the tusk. They don’t like anybody to go across in front of their eyes. So they are generally offensive animals. So, they are used for defense services.

One Mahārāja felt that the elephants also have a long life and they should be treated properly for their health. So, he asked somebody to write a book on elephant’s health and treatment of diseases. This man went and lived in a forest, maybe almost with the elephants and then wrote a book. That is in poetry.

So what I feel is that poetry is a contribution from the heart. If the pursuit is intellectual, then it will be written in prose. But if the pursuit is equally of heart, then the poetical element also comes there. Grammar is written in poetry. We have got a dictionary. That is written in poetry. All the synonyms are kept. Amarakośam is actually written in Sanskrit. It is a dictionary actually. This is something very surprising. We have to research as to how all the different branches of knowledge and science were composed in poetry is something to be gone into. Why I am mentioning this? I would not have perhaps liked Vedanta, spirituality so much if it was not in poetry. That poetry part makes it interesting for me.

In spirituality, you have to do a lot of reflection and introspection. I think in any branch of science you will have to do it. Because spirituality is a science, you have to do lot of introspection. In the introspection, what will be the fundamentals on which you will introspect? Everybody is not intelligent to do introspection all alone. They will need some help. This help will be best available if it is presented in a poetic form.

A few months or maybe a year back I wanted to make a note of how many poems I have gone through or grown through. In the morning when I used to walk, I started capturing my memory. I have written more than 600 verses. Right from my young age, whatever was taught in schools; what I saw, I was a person given to poetic competition. So for different reasons I used to learn poetry. This 600 does not include the various text books I have learnt. These are all different poetic elements from different places. So, I put them together, it is more than 600.

The point I want to emphasize is unless you learn these poems, commit them into memory and keep them with you, you will not be able to remember. If you learn them, wherever you go, whatever you do, these will start coming to your mind and whenever you want, you can recall it. That will help your introspection, what we call ‘manana’. Manana means using the mind, you think over it.

A seeker must have sufficient viveka. What is this Viveka or Discrimination? We have got a poetic definition and explanation of viveka. If you read and understand it, your very affinity to viveka will grow. Because a prose literature cannot be memorized like this. Poetic literature can be memorized because every letter is linked to another letter and nobody can interfere in that. Because the poetic sequence is such that a short letter is followed by a long letter; a simple letter is followed by a compound letter. These things are so interwoven that you can capture them in your mind. If a mistake is there, it will come to you after some time. What I want to say is that people should learn poetry.

So, every one of you will do well if you remember and learn these things. ‘P’ was saying, “Now I am not able to remember.” That is not right. You may not be able to learn fast but by repetition it can be done. There are some verses which I learnt a few years back. Even now I can learn but you will have to put in a little more effort. Don’t say that “I cannot learn”. This “Lokeśa Chaitanya mayādideva”, I had not learned it earlier. Like that so many verses are there. But the fastness may be absent.

I asked ‘B’ uncle. He was elder to me. “’B’ is it possible to learn?” “Yes”, he says. “We have to learn but put a little more effort.” Then you can learn.

So, all of you should remember this poetry is the most convenient way, inspiring way to cultivate very good reflections. When you sit you can chant poetry. It creates a lot of joy. It is after all like music. So it will give you a lot of joy.

Sankara has written a poetry on tolerance, forbearance. Whenever people discuss anything with me, I always this.

He has put it in such a beautiful, well-defined manner. The moment you learn it you understand that forbearance is such a wonderful quality. You cannot be satisfied saying that “I have enough of it” because he has given some definitions for that. Everything you should tolerate, apratīkārapūrvakam, in the tolerance level you should not feel like redressing whatever you have and you should not have any kind of complaint, any kind of an alternative thinking and all that. Without all these things if you are able to bear, it is tolerance.

So we have a very good definition about tolerance. If this is tolerance, how much do I have it, what more do I have to do, what is that optimum or best level and how much I have reached. Instead of giving anything for others anything to evaluate, you start evaluating it yourself. Then you will know how much mark you have. Then you will find you have only 25%, 30%. I sometimes ask our people, “How much do you have?” They say 50, 60, 65, 40, like that. Our own inmates. Then I ask them “How much mark will you give?” They will say 60, 65. I don’t think anybody has gone beyond 65. That means you have to gain 35 more.

This poetry is such a wonderful thing! One secret that I have felt is, when you chant a poetry you have a delight equal to what you will have when you have the full quality. You don’t have it but by chanting it, you have the joy. There are so many spiritual levels of perfection. We may not have reached it. But when you recite the poetry with a lot of attunement and identification, then you have the joy equal to what you have attained. Suppose you have attained it in full measure, that joy you will have. Attainment you may not have. So, it is very very inspiring.

In my life I have always learnt through poetry. I don’t remember anything in prose at all. Not even a sentence. But poetry I remember. I like English poetry also. In any language there should be poetry. Malayalam poetries also are there but I generally like Sanskrit because I have to move in different places and Sanskrit is a language which all people will be equally at home with. Otherwise poetry is in all languages. I want to write some English poems. Because English poem does not have beauty of meter. It is almost like prose writing except very few people have written metric poetry.

What do you say ‘A’ about poetry, whatever I say, is it right? When you recite poetry, it will re-organize your mind. It will instill the qualities you want. What is the way of penetrating into the mind and putting qualities there? We cannot enter the mind and put qualities. People don’t know how to do it. When any idea is produced, the mind should be there.

I have a disciple in Delhi who was telling me one day that “Swamiji, I want some qualities to be cultivated. How can I cultivate it?” I asked, “What is the quality you want?” “I want to have intensity.” I said, “You go on saying intensity, intensity, attention, attention, intensity. Like that you go on saying at least a thousand times minimum.” After a few days he says “I have sufficient intensity.”

Then he started taking śirśāsana.  He says after taking śirśāsana, qualities are easily developed by him. He says whenever he feels he should develop a quality, the automatically the quality grows in him. He says 15-20 minutes he takes śirśāsana.

This śirśāsana is an āsan which directly puts your head. And all the qualities, development, everything is done in the brain level. If you are able to stand on the head, it brings such a cyclonic change in you. Sarvāngāsana also is very good. Śirśāsana is not difficult at all. You should take it by the side of the wall. Sarvāngāsana is equally good as the meaning sarva-anga-asana, sarvāngāsana. Śirśāsana is the king of all asanas.

The difference between Śirśāsana and Sarvāngāsana is, in Sarvāngāsana the weight is distributed on your neck, head and shoulders. The hand also supports. So how many points are there – six. But in śirśāsana it is 80% on the head and on the elbows a little. That is the difference between the two. If you can take śirśāsan, our activity need will be reduced substantially. Even now I feel like taking śirśāsan but I may not be able to do it easily because the body has to be lifted.

So, you should understand how this poetry works, what is its greatness and how it gives us a lot of joy right from the beginning and how it helps this rumination, reflection and introspection.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.