Articles for Saadhana

I have been discussing the four important pre-requisites for a seeker of truth. An abiding discrimination between what is real and what is unreal – if you apply this discrimination, you will find, including your body, mind, intelligence and ego, everything in this whole creation, including Brahma, the creator, all of them are unreal.

At the same time, the unreality cannot be, except as a display or a manifestation of the real. So the real is manifesting itself because of its power and glory as all this. In other words, transitoriness is a display or manifestation of the eternal. The eternal reveals itself only by displaying transitoriness. If everything is transitory, how can the transitoriness itself be there? So the transitoriness, itself forces us to think of a substratum which is non-transitory. So the eternal reveals itself because of this transitoriness. That is how the two go together.

There could not have been a dream if there was no mind which dreamt. That mind was there even earlier and will be there after the dream, but during the dream it displays itself as the dream. So the dream is not the fact there, but the one which displays or manifests the dream, that is the real. It’s a very wonderful combination, provided you think about it.

Now, the next is – on the basis of this, a knowledgeable response to the transitoriness of the world and your own personality. That is dispassion. Then you must have a burning aspiration to have a mind which is free, flexible, assimilating and very joyful, despite whatever happens and happens not, in our life, in the world, or in us.

There may be so many things taking place in the world, implying losses and gains, denials and favours. Whether it is plus or minus, you must be able to remain poised and we must not depend upon any of these developments for our own contentment and fulfillment. Our fullfilment should be co-existential with the transitoriness of the world. This is a kind of a training, a process of sublimation, enrichment, elevation and fulfillment, where your own mind and intelligence become constantly the focus and every hour and day of our life should become enriching inwardly to us. Externally, it may be difficult or hard, but internally it should be enriching. Not only that, you should also be making an enriching contribution to the world, day after day, hour after hour.

A huge circle is drawn from and subsists on the centre, however huge the circle is. In the same manner, the whole life of yours, it is focused on your mind. Mind is the centre from which the entire display takes place, so it is a constant enrichment, inner enrichment, as a result of which enriching display also takes place. Now the mind has to become flexible, free from all the shackles. The intelligence also will have to be illumined and doubt free. Then only this will happen. This is called moksha.

Now, so far as characteral and behavioural traits are concerned; there are six qualifications, I said. śama, dama, titikṣā, uparati, śraddhā, now, finally samādhāna. What is this samādhāna?

चित्तैकाग्र्यं तु संलक्ष्ये समाधानमिति श्रुतम् ।

cittaikāgraṁ tu saṁlakṣye samādhānamiti shrutam

Balabodhasangraha, Sankaracharya.

Our mind should constantly be fixed on the sat lakshya. What is the objective of human life? What is it that you want? The world has been going on, so many people have lived here, done many things, finally gone…. you will also one day go to the cremation ground. So what is it that you want in life, either in the way of a take or in the way of give? Should your mind be fixed on the transitory, or on the non-transitory, eternal, supreme? If there is a cyclone and you are on the top of a tree, suddenly the wind blows and the branch of the tree also swings, what will you do? You will somehow creep in and come to the central trunk. That central trunk will not swing at all. So, you also will not swing.

Similarly, should you rest upon the eternal and remain unshakeable, or should you cling to the transitory and remain shaky? So let the mind and the intelligence be fixed on the sat, the non-changing, the change-less!

Tat samādhānamiti shrutam - Whatever comes and goes, have a faith; have a conviction; have a restfulness that everything will be alright. This is actually a solid position the mind has to acquire. You can blame everything, ridicule everything, condemn everything, by so doing you become condemnable. So without condemning and finding fault with things, you still have a faith. It should come to you in the form of an understanding. If understanding is delayed, at least have a faith.

Yesterday night I replied a very long letter received from a woman. She speaks many things about her, but the whole picture she is drawing is something very afflicting. She says, “I have enough money. Nobody does any work. Even if I pay 4000 or 5000 rupees, they are not doing any work. I have a daughter. The daughter married a Christian and they seem to be happy in their own way. They have no care for us. I have a husband, normally good relationship, but really not.” So, what shall I reply her? So I wrote. What did I write, you know? This is one side of your Swamiji! You may not understand, you may be wondering also. Let me still say.

“My dear Soul! Don’t draw an unpleasant picture of everything around. I agree that this is a pathetic situation. Even the stones will melt in sympathy, but what I have to tell you is that…

There was a legendary figure in Kerala called Kururamma. She was very fond of Krishna and Krishna was very fond of her. One day she said ‘I cannot come anymore to Gururvayur, so you should come and be by my side’ and Krishna seems to have followed her. And there is a temple where Krishna was and she was there. There was a great saint by the name Villumangalam. These are all facts, not legends. That Villumangalam had a stomach pain. One day she went to Kururamma saying ‘she is a lofty devotee’ to see her. So, she received him and finally she wanted to give him a little drink. He said ‘I cannot take, I have so much of stomach pain.’ ‘At least you take this butter which I have offered to lord Krishna.’ ‘Oh! Butter, it will always complicate!’ So she said ‘Don’t say, Swami, like this. It is the butter offered to Krishna. You take it, all your stomach pain will be cured. I am telling you’ and somehow she induced him to take the butter, thereafter no stomach pain for him forever.

This Villumangalam Swami was very close to Krishna. He used to do an elaborate puja and every day Krishna used to come to him, at least he was feeling. One day he was delayed, so he asked, ‘Why Krishna, you have come delayed? I have done the puja in time.’ And when he looked at the Krishna, the yellow silk he was wearing, there were a number of holes there and some tear also. ‘See look at my dress! There was a blind man, he had a begun¹ garden. Because he was blind, he was not able to move about and pluck the fruits. So, I went with him and started plucking and the branches were almost inter-woven, so I got hurt here and there and see, there are so many holes and tear. Because I wanted to complete the job to help him, I got delayed.’ This is what he said to Villumangalam Swami.

There was a devotee who was very passionate. He left everything in a resolve not to become passionate. But passion would not leave him. So one day he found a very good looking woman, after bath, going home. The moment he saw her, he was very much attracted, so he started following her like a bull. She walked, walked and walked, reached home and got inside the gate of the house. He also got in. Somebody was sitting on the veranda of the house. This woman entered and disappeared through the door, inside. Then he said, ‘See, the woman who has gone inside, will you please call her? I would like to look at her.’ And the man, without any qualms, called the wife saying that, ‘Please come, he wants to see you.’ By the time this man felt so shocked. What is it that I am doing? So there was a large lemon tree by the side, he plucked a thorn and put out his eyes, both the eyes, before the woman came. The eyes were bleeding and he was blind, going on, going on, going on. Everywhere he wanted to go, there would always come a child saying, ‘Catch hold of my finger and I will lead you.’

Then, one day he said, ‘I would like to go to Vrindavan.’ ‘Yes! Fix a day.’ The day was fixed. The boy came right on time and gave his finger. He caught hold of his finger and both of them started walking. After some time, that wonderful boy, he said, ‘Vrindavan has reached! Vrindavan has reached! Has reached!’ And he pulled his finger.

Meanwhile this wonderful blind devotee felt, ‘This is no other than my God’ So, he was trying to firmly hold him. He could not. And the boy must have been standing one inch or two inches away from him. The blind man cannot see. So he said, what is this? So here is what he said.

हस्तमुक्षिप्य यातोSसि बलात्कृष्ण किमद्भुतम् ।

हृदयाद्यदिनिर्यासि पौरुषम् गणयामि ते ।।

hastaṁ utcipya yāto'si balāt kṛṣṇa kimadbhutaṁ|

hṛdayādyadi niryāsi pauruṣaṁ gaṇayāmi te ||

Sri Krishna Karnamrutam 3.96

‘My dear Krishna, what have you done? I am a blind man. You gave me your finger. I caught hold of it and without my permission you pulled it. So this is escaping from my hold, this is not at all heroism or valor. But I will consider it your valor provided you are able to escape from my heart’, he said.”

I am addressing the woman.

"My dear woman, I am narrating these instances only to tell you that I don’t want you to feel helpless or lord-less. Amidst all these difficulties, you will still find a guidance, a help, an abiding friend. Can you rely upon your God and make him your friend, make him your associate? Will you say yes and report to me ‘I have done’? Let your daughter be X. Let your husband be X. Let your servants be Y. All of them agreed, amidst all these, there is still. Understand that the whole creation is supported by nothing. Nothing! And it is nowhere! But you will find so many systems, sequences, actions, reactions, forces, gravity and what not. It is self-preserved. That master intelligence, mighty intelligence, super intelligence which has brought all these things into existence is capable of providing succour to any distressed heart, wherever it is and in whatever condition it is. Can you pick up faith because you cannot understand it all of a sudden? If you are not understanding it, at least with faith, faith, rely upon this and make your reliance a friend and a support."