Articles for Saadhana

In the whole of creation, there are altogether only six items, the five are panchabhutas. They are different forms of matter and energy. The sixth factor is consciousness. Will you understand once for all that there are only these six? If a comparison is possible between them, it is this. Consciousness alone has the power to think, to form, to shape, to remember, etc. So, the power of creation, the potential for creation, is only in the consciousness. All the others are not so at all. If they are insentient, consciousness alone is sentient. So far as your search, or even your sadhana is concerned, the focus and attention should be and will be only in the consciousness.

“Swamiji, what is this consciousness? “ The consciousness is functioning as the mind, as the intelligence and as the ego. Whatever functions in these three ways is consciousness. So far as the other five are concerned, they cannot create themselves. They are the created. So, what can possibly create them? Something different from the five, at the same time, something which has the power of creation. Does not consciousness answer and fulfill these quests, these questions? Yes. It creates thoughts, it creates feelings, it creates emotions, it creates knowledge, it creates independently a dream world where the panchabhutas are there. So, why are you doubtful? If you are doubtful, I can only say, you will be offended when I say, "that if I don't understand it, I am a fool". You may turn your head this way and that way, stand upon it, do any kind of exercise you will find that if you are not able to understand consciousness and the potential it has to think, to understand, to create. To create what? Panchabhutas and the paanchabhautic world. Whether it creates in dream or not, don't worry about it. When you are dreaming it is not a dream, it is as good as the wakefulness. Only when you break, it becomes a dream. Now can it not be the other way? You are breaking from the wakefulness and then dreaming. Simply because you break from it, you cannot invalidate it.

Similarly the entire waking world totally disappears in asleep. Whose sleep? In your sleep. And whose wakefulness? Your own wakefulness. So the wakefulness is a creation of consciousness. It transits from it, goes into sleep, another state, sometimes dreams and then wakes up. So the consciousness alone is doing all this. Now this consciousness has got infinite potential. We are not going to be interested in all that. We only want that potential of consciousness by which we can increase our requirements. Our mind should become peaceful, it should become stable, it should become flexible, it should also be able to assimilate all kinds of impacts from the world. Only this much we want. All these potentials the consciousness has. So simply understand them, understand them and then harness them. What is the way of harnessing? When you know that your mind has got the power of assimilation, automatically you will express and utilize that power.

Yesterday, we had a discussion amongst the inmates of the Ashram. After the discussion I was asking one person, you can say half-inmate, how is your mind? Is it relaxed? “No, no I am very much upset.” Why should the person be upset? It was a discussion and in the discussion we will certainly speak whatever we want. Do you always expect to be improperly evaluated? It is one thing to be X. It is another thing for others to know and see that you are X. Why should we live in a fool's paradise? A person may be anything but what others think of him and see him may be different. Should we not be interested in what others think and know about you? “Oh, am I like that?” It should be a point of enlightenment for you. Why is it not? These are some of the constrictions that we have. It spoils life. It takes away peace. It makes your behavior, especially inter-personal behavior ugly and sometimes even obnoxious. Why should it be so?

Our role is to endear ourselves to the others, and make others endearing to us. It is easy to say, "He doesn't understand me, he is wrong, she is wrong, etc." But the right course would be, if you think you are so much right, why don't you simply function in a group where people are not so good as you are, and simply withstand, assimilate, and then prove your goodness and merit. It is the same daughter-in-law, mother-in-law story. What is that story? The daughter-in-law suddenly starts posing as if she has learnt many things, she starts quoting instances from her parents’ home. The mother-in-law is not interested in that. You have been married and you simply shut your mouth. Try to learn what are the habits there and try to please them. There will come a time when they will trust you and confide in you and you can do whatever you want. But if you don't have the patience? Any man who is good, if he doesn't have patience to display that goodness, then what use is it? You’ve got to think about it.

Why am I saying this? This consciousness alone is the sixth factor and the source of everything. That consciousness works in an individual, human manner in every one of us. You better understand the potential and possibilities of your mind and utilize them. Our goal is to become a sthita-prajna first and a sthita-dhi next. Our mission can be so good and so beautiful that you will simply depend upon chance wherever you are, at home or outside. You may be married and you may be running a family. Even then understand that you are driven by chance.

यदृच्छालाभसन्तुष्टो द्वन्द्वातीतो विमत्सरः ।

समः सिद्धावसिद्धौ च कृत्वापि न निबध्यते ।।

yadṛcchā lābha santuṣṭo dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ |

samaḥ siddhāvasiddhau ca kṛtvāpi na nibadhyate ||

(Bhagavad Geeta 4.22)

Be contented with whatever chance or providence brings....

It is an orientation that you have to make and your mind allows it. So, instead of taking a rigid position saying that, "I don't like, I don't like, I am misunderstood, I will do things only this manner, this is my way, etc." You can remain within a glass shell. That’s all!

I was asking an internationally recognized executive who was the CFO and CEO of companies. "Can you tell me what is that quality which has helped you in growing in your profession"? He said, "Swamiji, I have been controlling some 56 countries in the world. Every day I have to send and receive altogether more than 200 emails. My home and office make no difference to me. Wherever I have gone, I have appreciated the people and their ways. I have never put up resistance from my mind. This appreciation of what others are and their ways are is the one quality that has helped me wherever I went. It has endeared me to all the people with whom I interact. Of course in my own employment situation, there were some people who used to be jealous and intolerant of me". That was before he became the CFO and CEO, when he was considered for these posts. When he became a CFO there is no question of jealousy. Only before that. Because all the people would be under him. And to get elevated to CEO there was no jealousy at all.

So, this quality of being endearing to the others, this is something good. Why this feeling that, "I am X, I am Y, others are wrong, I am right, I can do things only in this manner, not that manner". All these things are constrictions which make you undear to the others. So, the purpose of spirituality is to recognize the mind as a functional unit of consciousness equally so the intelligence and ego, and then try to enlarge and expand their functional parameters. Make the mind broad, make the mind deep, make it lofty, make it larger and larger. I think if you can take up this point it will be very very good. Let us not speak unnecessarily big big things like Soul, etc. Why are we discussing the Soul? To understand that you are the Soul.