Articles for Saadhana

It was when I was in Calcutta before my pre-sannyasa life that the subject of spiritual wisdom, self-realization and jivanmukti occurred to me and was exposed to me. I got myself initiated by my Gurudev. Before very long, maybe after a year or so, I started reading the essential books and texts on the subject. I also read one or two biographies of people who are given to this life and who are recognized to be self-knowers. Ever since then my life was completely devoted to this, involved in this, in a natural and also selected manner. Strangely things moved, and before long I became a sannyasin and came to Kerala, started my wandering life.

I think it was on the second day or third day of our wandering life that people in a village made us talk on the Bhagavad Geeta. Ever since then our wandering life was changed in the sense it was not a chance driven life in the sense that we go walking from place to place without any money, etc. - that is how we started. So people started calling us for giving talks and thus it was parivrajaka life, no doubt, but not as a mere wanderer, but as an exponent, invited by people to expose our spiritual texts. I have enough knowledge in Sanskrit to get into the core of all these statements. On the one hand, my own sadhana intensified my association with my Guru. What I could see in him depicted what is this self-realization, who is that man who realized the Self and how will he live? All these questions found a full answer in my own Gurudev. As Ma always puts it, “Swamiji, you know the shastras very well. It is very, very rare that a person like you exposes it. It’s very difficult.” Why I said this? All the shastras that we have on the subject, I think they are available to me, I know them. What people generally miss certainly strikes my eyes and mind. So everywhere that full clarity, and decision, conclusiveness etc. is there. From the scriptures on the one hand, from personal experience on the other, and corroborated and confirmed by reason on the other, these are the three tests. Now with all this, I want to tell you something.

Our mind is the trouble maker. We are propelled by the mind, impelled by the mind, instigated by the mind, led by the mind. But the mind has its own preferences and prejudices, partly habitual, partly optional also. All these result only in two factors: rāga and dveśa. We like things, we dislike things. If we ask ourselves why am I liking, and why I am disliking – no answer. “I don’t like”, “I like”, “Leave me to what I want to do.” This is all what everybody will say. Shankara would say these likes and dislikes are characteristic of all creatures in this world. He always says paśvādapiśya aviśeṣa. in the case of animals, particularly cows, etc., the likes and dislikes are there. In a herd of cows you will find one cow will hit a few, will not hit the others. Why it hits a few? It doesn’t know. Very strange. If you keep grass and go near the cow, it will come to you. If you have a stick and raise it, she will run away. This is what he says with regard to rāga-dveśas. And rāga-dveśas are capping all sensory objects. A man who is able to handle these rāga-dveśas in such a manner that whatever is to be done from time to time can be and will be done effectively, that is all what we aim at with spiritual perfection. Why it is called spiritual perfection? Because mind is a spiritual constituent. It’s not a material or an energial one.

The other day M. asked me, “All people are equally, uniformly human. Why is it that so much differences are there?” in the blood group, only 4 are there, but then the physiognomical features a lot of variety is there. So far as the mind is concerned, the mind is a potential which can spring into a multiple set of actions and tendencies. That is the nature of the mind. Mind is infinitely potent and its expressions are infinitely various. Naturally, the other day we were discussing with N. here. See, we speak about sattvic food. When we were explaining the sattvic food, N. was saying one man said,

“You may speak about sattvic food but N., I like rajasic food.” Now if his like is denied by nature, you will say nature is constricting, it doesn’t give us freedom. So the mind gives you ample freedom from the best to the worst. And you have to find your position and pursue it. Because you are an individual, you will be surrounded by a number of other individuals, differently tempered and differently tendencied. So what is the way to live in this world? This is the simple way. You must be able to avoid what you like. And you must be able to accept what you dislike.

Likes and dislikes should not stand in the way of your doing anything that is necessary. The necessity can be from an individual point of view, family point of view. See, we have fixed a course here. And we have fixed timings. And we say the participants should arrive here in time. There is no option. The optional decision is we have chalked out a programme. And the participants have to come here. Now if one does not come, the other also may not come. So at what time will they come? No time at all. So we fix a time, it is only a convenience and also a compulsion you can say. Now if you are not able to come here according to the time fixed, “Oh! I like to be a little late”, if you say that, you like to be a little late, that like you will have to handle. “No, I like to be a little late. But I should go there. Because there is a time fixed.” So the call of intelligence saying that you have to reach there will have to be heeded and the mind will have to drop its like.

Similarly you dislike something. Even if you dislike, you have to do. Say, for example, we are buying vegetables from the market. The vegetables are all in a way polluted. A lot of … now there is an agitation for banning endosulfan. So right into the flower they spray pesticides, into the flower they are spraying. Now I would not like this kind of a vegetable. But they alone are available. What can I do? I don’t like diseases and disorders in the body. But they are. So I have to take some medicine. When the medicines are taken, they have side-effects. We don’t like them. Still we have to. So in the whole life you will find the flexibility and the discretion to manage your likes and dislikes so that you don’t cross with others. You must be flexible on the one hand, and harmonious.

One A. is a disciple of mine. He was working in JP Morgan bank. He was a chief financial officer. Later on, he became a CEO in a gulf organization, a government organization. I asked him, “You have moved so much in the world and you have occupied very good positions.” His biography was reported in an international magazine called CFO. “Can you tell me what is the one quality that helps you wherever you go?” You know what A. told me. “Swamiji, It’s not anything much. It’s this quality. Wherever I went, in whichever country I was”, he was controlling at one time 56 countries in the world, giving instructions everyday through the mobile and otherwise, so he said, “I never questioned the behavior or other details of the people. Whatever they are, I conform to them and I merge with them. They are happy, I am also happy.” He moves left and right. Very resourceful person also. His thinking and ideas are very very high. He can think of bringing about a merger between two big organizations. Any decision he can take, a lot of knowledge and experience he has. He says, this is the quality that he has. So if you have a certain rigidity, habitual or otherwise, which does not allow you to mix with the others, don’t think it is a qualification. Certainly not.

So when I started speaking in Trichur and other places, this Vedanta was a subject which was never heard by many. So when I started speaking, hundreds of people used to listen to me. And I would bring all these domestic and kitchen elements there. Even in a new-born child you put sugar in the mouth or honey. It sucks them happily. Put something bitter and it will spit it out. This is the nature of everyone. So I would like you to understand that mind is governed by likes and dislikes, and the intelligence has to be governed by propriety and orderliness. So there is a constant struggle between intelligence and mind. This struggle should go and every time the mind should be prepared to listen to the intelligence and then carry on.

See, you have come here. Some of the things that I say, you may not like and you may not readily accept. Very good, that is why you have come here. You need not accept. You need not like also. But understand that it is part of the subject and the discussion. So make a provision in your mind to receive what is said. You may not know what is now. But you will know later. It will remain as a capital and an investment for you. The approach to the scriptures will be not every time having understood what it is saying. But ready to accept that the scriptures will not say lies and all their statements and pronouncements are very super. We are to reach that level, that understanding. You know, our scriptures are very traditional. Ultimately what they tell you, “This is how you have to proceed and proceed and proceed. And when you have reached at this stage, we have nothing to tell you. You be what you are.” Sannyasa is described and sannyasa details are given. When the sannyasin approaches the subject, pursues it and realizes it, Shrimad Bhagavata particularly says,

Krishna says, “Now when he has fulfilled his life’s goal, the necessary self-knowledge, Brahmic knowledge, God realization he has, and he has a fulfillment. We keep away. He may keep some of the insignia of sannyasa or he may throw them away, outlive them. It’s all depending upon what he proposes to do, what he does, what he likes to preserve and what not. We keep away”, he says. What do you think of such a scripture? It takes you to a level of fulfillment when they say, “We have nothing more to tell you. Now you decide what is good, what is bad, what is necessary. Because you have reached a state of immaculateness. You are no more harmful. You are no more arrogant. You are no more possessive. You are no more dominant. You are no more this, no more that. So like an immaculate, innocent child, you are free to do what you like.” This is how our scriptures take us to a perfect level.