Articles for Saadhana

All of you know very clearly that our personality is a composite one. In that the external gross counterpart is the body along with the senses. But the whole body is but an instrument in the hands of something within. How many times shall I say this? The whole body along with its parts, sensory organs, is only an instrument to be wielded, to be employed by something else. And what is that something else? It is within the body. Because it is within the body it is not gross. Hence it is not visible. That is the whole problem. Neither the mind, nor the intelligence, nor the ego are visible. But these are the factors which employ the body for any task that you can imagine. Because the mind, intelligence and ego are invisible, there is always an elusiveness about us. What is that elusiveness? Every activity is originally designed by the mind, then the mind employs the body to implement it, and after implementing, the conclusional level also it comes to the mind. So virtually the whole life is lived by us in, by, of, through the mind. But the mind is invisible. Because it is invisible we are not able to guide our life properly, improve our life properly, make it better and better, more and more refined, more and more focused. Because for all these the mind has to be employed. But the mind remains invisible and subtle. That is how we have evolved a great science called spiritual science.

This spiritual science is an experiential one. Perhaps in medicine, you call some medicines to be empirical medicines, they are not objectively researched into and arrived at, but in terms of the effects, the medicinal items produced in the human body which were tested, observed, they say, this is a medicine. So here it is all empirical. Everything is experiential. With the help of your experiences you have to proceed, proceed. That is how the entire science and technology of spirituality have been evolved and the sole focus of our spirituality is the ‘I’. The ‘I’ is a reference and that reference, we know, is not to something external or gross or distant. It is something inward.

Whatever we call the Self is nothing but that which is denoted by the term ‘I’. In Sanskrit it is said like this, I think you must have known it. 

अहं प्रत्यय गोचरः ।

ahaṁ pratyaya gocaraḥ

That which is revealed and pointed out by the thought or the idea called ‘I’, that is the Self. This Self is the fulcrum on which the whole of spiritual science, spiritual pursuits, spiritual realization, everything is involved and everything rests. So the subject of Self and the process of Self-realization are the science and technology of the Self. But the subject is not very difficult because while the body is gross and visible, thoughts and emotions, knowledge, doubt, enquiry, etc. are not visible. They are not gross. They are not part of the body. Nevertheless, nevertheless, mark my words. Whenever a thought comes, we know. Whenever a doubt is there we apprehend it. Whenever there is a search or a finding, then also we know it. So you cannot say it is beyond us. It is perfectly within our experience. This experientiality is the factor that we have to use in the whole of vedantic study and pursuit. But the canons we are using for spirituality are the same as for objective sciences. What are they? Observation with the senses and inference by the intelligence, mind. In as much as the canons are the same, the finding should be equally powerful, equally true, and equally acceptable. That is how we question the very existence of the world.

The existence of the world is depending upon us, the observer or the experiencer. It is not that the world experiences us. We experience the world. In the same way as we experience it, we also do not experience it. If 16 hours we experience it, 8 hours we do not experience it. Where did the experience go? How can it become valid? When the world experience goes, even then the experiencing ‘I’ survives. To wake and then say, “Yes, I did not experience the world. Now I am experiencing it.” The experienced disappears, but the experiencer survives. Naturally the surviving experiencer must be the reality and not the vanishing experienced. Now this is the reason, the inference we evolved. Now this subject will become very clear to you provided you are able to apply your intelligence.

Right in the beginning I told you that we can only expose you to this area of knowledge. While we are exposing you, you should receive it, wholesomely. As you receive it, we will expose. As we expose, you will receive. So it is a mutual or a bipartite affair. But after we have exposed, I think I cannot do anything. Whatever you have heard, you should make sure that you have understood it. So you should introspect or ruminate over whatever you have heard, until at last the knowledge becomes assimilated and becomes your property, not my property. Every piece of information that I am sharing with you, is supposed to be your knowledge as it is my knowledge. There, your own individual personal rumination is important. I am wondering whether you are ruminating sufficiently. And as it is exposed, unnecessarily don’t create walls in your mind. Just receive. Some of the statements you may not understand fully.

See it requires a certain maturity. Along with the maturity, it requires certain purity, cleanliness. I was speaking about ahimsa and other virtues. One. The second one - satya. What is satya? Truthfulness. I would like you to ask this question. Truthful, truthful, truthful, are you? Are you? in all walks of life? Even in this session, are you truthful? What is generally expected of you, are you doing? Are you spending enough time on rumination? When a question or a proposition is set, are you responding to it, without delay? I have received altogether five books, all of them I have gone through, made some remarks also. What about the other six? So do you have the necessary fidelity? Are you showing enough of truthfulness? Every one of you has filled up a form and in the form, it is generally … you know even in governmental forms also, whatever is said above is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief, it’s a signature you have to put, confirmation. Similarly, in order to make the session effective, wholesome and fruitful, everything depends upon the participants, we can only make an arrangement and a facility. So the truthfulness means quite a lot. Whenever you write, are you writing truthfully? Whenever you hear, are you hearing truthfully, without any curtains or walls in your mind? After all it’s a great knowledge. It is knowledge of your own inside.

You already have your inside and you are adults but you have never been able to know it. Why is it that you don’t know? Even body we don't know. The doctors have to know, they have not completed their research. This is unlike the body experiential. Everybody knows. Thoughts arise in your mind. Feelings arise in your mind. Doubt arises in your mind. Quest transpires in you. All these are your own inner evolutions or instances. About the behavioral pattern, character, quality, all these things we have already said that this is what is expected of you, etc, etc. I would like you to find out whether you are sufficiently truthful in whatever you do or say or act? Without truthfulness the whole world cannot survive.

The earth is going on revolving on its own axis taking 24 hours and it has been doing so for millenia. It has not become tired. And the trajectory is kept so the day repeats, the week repeats, the fortnight repeats, the month repeats, the year repeats. How faithfully is earth doing everything? As children of the earth should we not be equally faithful? And if we are not faithful, is it something to be approved of, complimented and tolerated by ourselves? I think truthfulness and harmony mean quite a lot. Spirituality emphasizes on these qualities. There are a number of qualities which spirituality emphasizes.