Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

I would like to speak a little on this ‘Brahma Vidya Deeksha’ which I have been giving to seekers of truth. See, people come here seeking Deeksha. Maybe they are very earnest. Some people understand the place and importance and fullness of Deeksha or maybe they don’t understand. I try to explain to them that for anyone to think of seeking the supreme truth, call it God, the Self, or moksha is something very rare.

Everyone is getting born as a child to the parents. The parents look after the child. He or she grows, undergoes a course of education, thereafter either seeks employment or gets married, becomes a parent, has children, get them married when they grow old, have grandchildren and finally go away. This is the story of the super majority of humanity. This being so, very rarely it occurs to a person to think about what is this human life? In what way are we different from the others? We have the power of speech. We also have the power and potential of thinking. The animals live in the same world in which we live. But they see only the outside. They cannot go into the inside and understand the greatness, potential, possibility etc. of the mind, of the consciousness that animates the body. But we humans can and often we do.

Human life is meant primarily to probe inside the body. It is for becoming joyous, there is no doubt. But we want to be joyous without being dislodged from it. We think that the joy comes from outside, from the objects, but no object ever enters into our system to generate joy. I see a beautiful horse or a tusker, an elephant. I feel very happy. I think that the joy comes from the elephant. Please go and ask the elephant. “Swamiji feels joy, have you done anything for it?” The elephant will say, “No nothing I have done. I don’t know that Swamiji is there at all and he is looking at me.”

If that source does not know anything and it does not create joy for me, naturally the source of joy must be within me. It is my mind that takes a picture of the elephant and it is this mind picture that I feel happy with. So the joy does not come from the external gross, physical elephant. But it comes from a picture my mind has made of it. And the picture is internal, my own and it is drawn by the mind. The mind by drawing the picture of an elephant makes me happy. Like that, it thinks and makes me happy. It feels and makes me happy. It remembers and makes me happy. Everything is mind-born and mind-subsisting and mind-concluding. This is from where Brahma Vidya Deeksha and Brahma Vidya sādhana start. Understand that you are inside, the mind is the source of everything. If we feel there is a world, it is the mind that tells you. If you feel the world is beautiful, it is the mind that paints the world as beautiful. If it is ugly, again the ugliness is made by the mind. Electricity - it is the mind that sensed it. Magnetism - yes.

For everything that we interact with in this world, our mind alone is responsible and the sole cause. It is this mind that we are trying to get into and be with, in this Brahma Vidya deeksha and sādhana. After taking deeksha, the sādhaka or sādhika should not feel that there is anything to be looked into at all. The seeker or the initiated person should sit in a room alone in the āsana meant for it. You should close the door and window and be alone. Look into the within.

Our mind is colourless, odorless, it is neither gross nor subtle. Everything agreed. But it is this mind that gives you the idea and experience of everything like color, size, bitterness, sweetness, sourness, everything. Everything is created by it. Light, it creates the light, it creates darkness. In order to create light and darkness, it created the eyes for us. In order to create the sensation of touch, it made the skin in us. To hear the sound, it made the ear and ear drum in us. There is nothing not created by the mind. It is this mind that you are trying to delve into. Be very sure - Never look to anything outside, only the mind. And whatever the Guru has given, I have given, hold on to that and start swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming, ceaselessly in your mind ocean. Don’t say anything! Don’t want anything in particular. Do not dislike anything in particular. Be immersed in your own mind, mind, mind, mind, mind, mind! If your system calls for joy, the joy will be produced from the body, from the mind. If it wants to have peace, that will also be produced. You should never look to anything else.

People often complain that they have distractions in the form of thoughts. What is after all a thought? A product of the mind like a mud pot is a product of the clay. In the case of the mud and pot, the pots are made using the clay to the extent the clay is used, the mother clay, the source will be lesser. And you have to make the pot and keep it away from the source clay. Now answer me when I ask you. Is there anything like a space within the body where the mind produces thoughts and emotions and keep them separately like the mud pots from the clay? Think for a moment, my dear seekers. Why are you so bankrupt? Is there any space within the body to produce one thought after the other and keep them and stop them somewhere? And what is this thought? It is just like pot is mud or clay, here also the thought is no other than the mind. It is a mind product. Now when the thoughts arise, why are we complaining and feeling dislodged? Every thought contains no other than the mind substance, substance, substance!

I was telling this ‘X’, I write on the paper Rāvaṇa, I also write Rāma. Tell me, where is this Rāvaṇa there? In the paper? Or in the ink with which I have written? And where is Rāma? When you look at both, you will find it is white paper on which black lines have been drawn. Neither the paper is Rāvaṇa and Rāma nor is the ink Rāvaṇa and Rāma. So, where is this Rāvanatva and Rāmatva? Similarly when you write with the mind, a particular thought and another thought, the two thoughts are in substance not different from the mind. Now you hold on to this truth at least as a faith in what I say. This is where ‘Guru bhakthi’ counts. Without your ‘Guru Bhakthi’ you cannot get anything at all in the sphere of spirituality. Krishna repeatedly tells Arjuna.

“You are my devotee, so you will listen to what I say. You are also a friend, that additional factor of friendship is also there. Therefore I am disclosing to you a secret. You will not trust it if it is given by somebody else. Because you are devoted to me and you feel I am a benefactor and a friend, I am telling you this secret.” In the same manner I am telling you the secret. In no thought is a content other than the mind. Then why are we feeling distracted? It is because of a delusion. It is because of an ignorance. Think. Deliberately think Rāvaṇa, Rāvaṇa, Rāvaṇa, Rāvaṇa, Rāvaṇa. Also think Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma. Does my tongue become Rāvaṇa and Rāma when I chant this? Then will the mind become? So the thoughts, their variety have to be looked at from a different point of view. Never feel distracted. After all, it is the same mind that thinks. The mind is given to thinking. It thinks about everything that one has experienced. It has to relate the past to the present and be concerned about the future. So the memory of all the things you saw will come.

When you go to the railway station you see a dog run over. You will see that. A drunkard lying there, that also you will see. Some blood has flown on the ground. That also you will see. You don’t like them. But because the eyes have seen and the sight has been registered in the mind, when you sit these scenes will come. Therefore what? Therefore what? So look at it from a different point of view with this enlightenment and never feel distracted. Let the thoughts come. Don’t follow them. Don’t act upon them. As they come they will also go. If you feel concerned and agitated about them or by them then you will find they go on pestering you more and more. So the mantra or anusandhāna that I have given, that mantra should be held and held and held. If distractions come, don’t count the distractions. Think that I am with the mantra and the mantra is in me, me, me. The mantra and the mind together will completely dissolve at one time. It will not take much time if you are an earnest seeker and you have enough of bhakthi.

So these distractional thoughts about which seekers complain I want to tell you, take my word, by no thought are you distracted. No thought dislodges you from your mind! Mind being there alone, thoughts are there. And no thought in substance is different from the mind. When you start thinking in this manner, the distractions lose their effect and the uniformity of the mind goes on increasing tremendously and you will have a thin, light, peaceful and stable mind.

I was a little enlightened or struck when ‘Y’ was telling me, “Swamiji you are able to work far more because you have a free mind and the mind you are able to focus.” “Then when you are working you cannot focus the mind?” They say, “No. Our mind is not free.” What is this? I am still to understand what he said. So to make your mind free from the obsession of the thought process, I am giving you this knowledge. Only by this knowledge you can handle the distraction and make it powerless. You must be able to float over your mind. Whatever be the nature of thoughts that come from the mind, be floating, floating, floating. You can float on a colorful water and color free water, sometimes a little muddy water and clear water. In the case of the body, it may be affected by it. But your inner being is not affected by any kind of a mental mud or slush or anything. Can you pick up this message? Then you are fortunate. Otherwise go on struggling, struggling and struggling in the hands of your own beautiful mind.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.