Articles for Saadhana

We are still discussing the qualities and qualifications of the seeker.

Seeker and seeking – these are always relevant to the intelligence of man. Throughout your life, what will the intelligence do, except seek and gain knowledge?

Intelligence is an important constituent in our personality. In fact, that is the most super that you can think of. Being so, unless we have a quest for knowledge and the quest continues to be throughout life, I don’t think life will be interesting. So, to say that viveka should adorn human life, guide human life, govern human life, it is not something unusual at all. But so far as spiritual life and pursuit are concerned, this viveka has to be focused on the real or the satya, nitya, as eternal as different from anitya, the fleeting. That is all the difference.

You will find, if you incorporate viveka in your life, your life will be much more adorned, enriched and empowered. While applying viveka, you can be focused on the external objects and interactions which you have every day. Equally so, you apply viveka to your own internal workings and processes. “In all my interactions, have I had the right attitude? Did I have the right response? Did my mind react always properly and well? Or there were mistakes, errors, eruptions and what-not.” So apply the viveka with regard to your internal working, inner personality. “Could I have done this better? In what way I could have improved matters?” One important viveka I would like to tell you is that – in all our interactions, there is always a tendency for us to blame others. “Oh! He did not understand when I said it. He is not good!” It is agreed that he is not good, he doesn’t understand.

Your question should always be “How can I still be effective with such a person? How can I be effective with such a person?”

You have to lift a weight to a certain height. When you try to lift it, you are not able to do it. It is too high for you. Then what do you do? How can I still lift it? So you take a lever, maybe six feet or seven feet long, and very strong lever. And you put the tip of the lever underneath the weight and put a stone, or something like that, may be wooden piece just behind it and then you press it, you will find the weight will be lifted.

The same attitude you must have in dealing with human beings also. “He is not good. He will not listen to me. He is always this. He is always that.” Ok, he is always like that. Variety rules every part of nature, every facet of nature. So, one question that you should take up is “How can I be effective in a given situation.”

“I tried this, it is not effective. I will try another.” So every time if you start thinking in this manner, you will find that your inner personality and the merits and the skill that you have will always be growing. I would put it in this way. We generally have wells in the countryside. Depending upon the summer and how much quantity of rain you had earlier, sometimes the well will dry up, because of lack of sufficient monsoon or very hard summer. So what we do is we dig a little more to have more water, or as much as you want. Again you have to dig maybe after two-three years. Like that the well becomes deeper and deeper as the water becomes scarce and more scarce. Similarly, you have to dig out your own internal dimension.

Our body circumscribes us. The perimeter of the body is not going to increase. The height is not going to increase. The hands and feet are not going to increase in their length. But, my dear seekers of knowledge, I want to tell you with one lakh mouths that the inside of your body, the layers of consciousness, they are unlimited! They are not circumscribed like the body.

The body is a matter-energy aggregate and the spirit or the sentience is consciousness. It cannot be circumscribed or encased by any material body. So it has got great dimensions! It is because of its great dimensions that you are able to see a mountain and experience it within your body, in the mind. The mountain is very huge, your body is not so huge, but with a small pair of eyes, you are able to bring the mountain to your inside and the whole mountain is present within you to experience and then say, how long it is, how high it is. Suppose there is a hill nearby. One person is walking towards it. You stand at a great distance. You see the hill and the man walking. You don’t go to the hill. You remain where you are. This man is walking and he has neared the hill, you will say he is nearing … nearing. When he steps over the hill and starts climbing, from here you can say, “Ah! He is now climbing. One step, second, third.” How is it that you are saying it, unless you experience the whole object within your body, in your mind? And within the mind, within the body, the whole hill is seen. That means you are experiencing it. Can the mind be small now or it is big and bigger than the hill? Similarly, it can see the mountain, it can see the sea. It can see the sky and so many stars. So, what is the capacity, potential of the mind? What is the size and magnitude of the mind? There is no limit at all!

An eye specialist told me, the far point of the eye is infinite. If at an infinite distance a sufficiently sized object is placed, our naked eyes can see it. That is how we see the stars. The stars are at infinite distances, but even then we are able to see, remaining here. What do you think of it?

So, my dear seekers of knowledge, I would like you to be focused on what is within your body. What is that? There is a presence, call it a power or a potential, I would like to say sentience, that animates the body and also activates the body. That power, that presence, it is infinite in its potential and magnitude!

It is this mind that I want you to dig more and more, more and more and find greater and greater dimensions. If one attitude is not applicable and efficient, try another attitude, try a third attitude. Persist in your approach. At that time, never feel ill of the other. You may get irritated. The irritation maybe caused by an external cause, but irritation is yours. Irritation does not belong to another man.

“I am irritated with you!” Where is ‘you’ there? It is your mind’s irritation. Your mind’s irritation is your problem and it is for you to resolve it. So we have some conventional, emotional conflicts in our mind. They are very conventional. “I like. I dislike. I hate. I am intolerant. I am impatient. I will not excuse. I will not accommodate. I will sit comfortably, will not worry about whether another man sits or not. When I move, even if my hand touches another’s body, it does not matter to me.” All these are conventional, behavioral patterns. I would like you to subject them and see whether they are refined, whether they are ethical, whether they are polished. As human beings, are we supposed to do this or do something better!

Thus, the viveka can be about your own character, about your own behavior, about your own interactions. Remember the words – characteral elegance, behavioral majesty and interactional excellence.

What is the best type of interaction? Where people will find you amiable, lovable and loving, tolerant, patient, given to considering others’ needs etc. Try to become societal in your mind. I have seen…. I have been looking after cows with a lot of fondness and intimacy also. When I give good water, tasty water to the mother, the mother will instantly insert the mouth into the vessel and start drinking. The calf maybe standing nearby, it will shed milk to the calf. But if the grown up calf is there, the mother does not stop drinking and allow the calf to drink a little. Never it does so. Never! Never! The calf will have to penetrate and find its way. Now this is the animalist attitude. Having been human beings, if we have the same animalist tendency, is it acceptable to you? Then why is it that we are selfish? Why is it that we are egocentric? Why is it that we are constricted by conventions? In human life, are we supposed to eat, are we supposed to sleep, and do this alone? Are we supposed to marry and procreate, that alone? Are all these things are with a view to develop our inner being. In the inner level, you have only the emotional and preferential and prejudicial mind and the rational intelligence.

There are many people in this world who are intelligent but their intelligence is focused only on the external sphere and external achievements. The same intelligence has to be applied to examine their own character, their own behavior and their own interactions. Spiritual wisdom, as I know, as I experience, as I excel in, enables you to have a very good interactional life. In any situation, we must be able to assimilate the impact from the world. I always say, “My dear world, I am yours and you are mine. Throw anything into me, I will never appose or resent. I will assimilate whatever you throw into me. My body cannot assimilate, I know very well, but my mind can assimilate the entire universe. I already see the universe. Look in any direction. We are seeing infinite distances and infinite variety. The ‘I’ captures all of them and the images the mind forms, so what is the capacity of the mind? If I can picture and contain a mountain, I can picture an image, a sea; I can reflect the endless space. What does it mean? My mind is equally so and that mind, as it is infinite with regard to the ‘I’, it is also infinite with regard to its potential and assimilating power.”