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Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.
I am wondering as to why the experiential Vedanta and the sadhana associated with it are not having abundant appeal to many of you. What I have found is that when the mind is not pure and clean, the possessor of that mind is always getting into trouble. An unclean mind makes you miserable, and a clean mind makes you happy. Initially a person tries to imbibe purity and when he becomes pure, he finds many things unacceptable. Now, that is a situation where purity itself is not adequate. If purity makes you miserable because you are confronted by impurity, whatever may be the denomination that you give to purity and impurity, it is not an acceptable and successful formula. That is the time you feel there is something different from purity as distinct from impurity. In other words, the dvandvas of purity and impurity are something to be overcome or sublimated. That is where you strike the supreme transcendental wisdom.
The little, young Nachiketas goes to Yama and he specifies his requirement. What is that?
अन्यत्र धर्मादन्यत्राधर्मा –
दन्यत्रास्मात्कृताकृतात् ।
अन्यत्र भूताच्च भव्याच्च
यत्तत्पश्यसि तद्वद ।।
anyatra dharmād-anyatrādharmād-anyatrāsmāt kṛtākṛtāt |
anyatra bhūtācca bhavyācca yattatpaśyasi tadvada ||
Kathopanishad 1.2.14 ||
If you find something different from dharma and adharma, past and future, cause and effect, if you find something different from these, let me know, otherwise, please shut your mouth. This is what the little boy said. I don't know how many people really go into this statement. No formula in this world is sufficient to withstand the impacts of the world. You must have a flexibility, an assimilativeness, a reconciling attitude, a kind of a resilience by virtue of which all the conflicts and contradictions of the world would be harmoniously let in and let out. A very honest, pious and upright father, suppose he has a child who is given to immoral ways, what will he do? He cannot disown the child because it is his child and he won't be able to get another. He has to reconcile with it. In the same manner you have to reconcile with the world which is your bigger family.
Yesterday, S. brought to me the "Science of Inner Redemption", the thirtieth essay. Incidentally it also marks the conclusion of the discussion on worship. Vasishtha is actually restating his own conversation with Lord Shiva in the Himalayas. Lord Shiva appeared in the Himalayan peaks and there ensued a conversation between Vasishtha and Lord Shiva. Then Lord Shiva himself explains that true Shiva is Consciousness. Consciousness is the power and the presence that animate and activate the body, all living bodies. If Shiva is Consciousness, what kind of an externalising worship can be true of him or applicable to him?
We have an idol denoting Lord Shiva and this idol we are worshipping with dhara, pouring of water, offering of flowers, offering of pudding and all that. But if Shiva is a Consciousness that animates the living body, what kind of worship is applicable to him? If you pick up an idol, a stone from the earth, place it somewhere, pluck flowers and offer them to the idol, can it be a worship of the inner Consciousness? Not at all. So, what is the worship? Recognizing the Consciousness, recognize it. Just like you say your God is in the idol, you start saying the real God is the Consciousness in me. And how will you approach and worship this Consciousness? Because it is the presence that animates and activates your body, no material substances can be relevant to worshipping the Consciousness. In all worship, Consciousness is the activating and animating factor. If I see a flower, I see it with my eyes. The eyes are empowered, acted upon by the Consciousness. So, I am worshipping that power and presence, which make me see the flower and take the flower. If that is going to be the worship to the Lord, worship of the Consciousness, is it not a process of withdrawal that is required rather than involvement and expression outwardly?
So, instead of looking at the idol, plucking the flowers, cleaning them and offering them, you will sit in a place and turn inward, and locate the Consciousness that animates and activates you. Go into what the Consciousness is doing. It is producing thoughts, emotions, knowledge, doubt, memory, all these are offshoots from the Consciousness. So, whenever anything like that emerges, identify it with its very source. This Consciousness produces good thoughts and bad thoughts, it brings about benevolence and its opposite, in fact everything in this world sprouts from it. Look into your mind, you will find how many bad and how many good things arise from the Consciousness. Never act upon either, identify both with the very source. Whether you get angry, whether you desire, whether you are jealous, don't distinguish any act or any emotion. Consider all of them are equally belonging to Consciousness and brought about by Consciousness. Think of the Consciousness as the cause of everything, enfolding everything, comprehending everything. Thus the thought of the Consciousness and its own wholesomeness should be more and more. This, Lord Shiva says, is the real worship.
You may think of it as absurd. “Swamiji, how can we think even bad things are Godly?” If they are not Godly, you tell me, are they dogly? They are Godly. Why are they so? That is a different matter, you will understand it. So, when you understand bad also is from Consciousness and it is Consciousness alone, you know the result will be Consciousness will strike you more than the bad. So, the bad will be inundated by Consciousness. Later on, the good also will be. And Consciousness alone will remain.
This is what Nachiketas wants to know about.
anyatra dharmād-anyatrādharmād-anyatrāsmāt kṛtākṛtāt |
anyatra bhūtācca bhavyācca yattatpaśyasi tadvada ||
All these things start from a differentiation. That differentiation goes on and goes on, until you are tired of it. You find it inconsistent and disharmonious and drop it. You reach a state of transcendence, transparence, wholeness. Then you can breathe an air of peace and harmony. The entire world of plurality and contradictions are stifling you again and again until you become breathless and you seek a salvation in that transcendence which I have described.
So, the chapter concludes this time. See, in a land where the religious culture of devotion and piety is rampant in the air; you will find we also have thoughts and philosophies which point out very clearly that no worship external is relevant to the real God. The entire external world is only to be tasted and to be left. Every facet of life is to be lived, only to be outlived. Living means outliving. The world is seen, understood and outlived, and the seer is sought, gained and preserved.Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
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