Posts

Showing posts from April, 2014

The Background of Thought :1.

Image
Most of us are in such a helpless condition, as it were, that we have to take into account everything that takes place outside without having any say in the matter.  This is the life of slavery.  A slave is one who has no personal say in anything.  Whatever he is ordered to do, he has to do, and his life depends not on himself but on something else.  Whatever changes may take place in that ‘something else’ will also be the corresponding change that takes place in one’s own self.  This is not a life of freedom, and therefore, it cannot be a life of happiness and peace. We are unhappy for one reason or the other.  Though the cause of the unhappiness may vary from one person to another, the consequence is the same.  People may die for various reasons, but the result is that all die.  The consequence is uniform: no one is happy, whatever be the cause behind it and whatever be the ultimate reference we make as to the originating factor of it.  We cannot

Peace of mind :3.

Image
Again I tell you, look at that wonderful Viratsvarupa, the cosmic consciousness, the description that we have in the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Was any dirty thing there? If the cosmic consciousness – the universe which presented itself before Arjuna – did not have any dirty thing, ugly thing or unwanted thing, from where have these unwanted things come now before your eyes? You are the creator of the problems of life – nobody else – and you are not prepared to accept it because of the egoism that is so hard, flint-like, which says, "I am what I am, and I am right! And everybody has to follow what I think." If everybody started asserting in this manner, there would be a social rift and warfare immediately following. You should consider yourself as very blessed that you can think like this. You should consider yourself as blessed because you know where your blessedness lies. It is with you – the you that is inseparably connected to the creation as a whol

Peace of mind :2.

Image
The whole play is consciousness only.  You are the maker of yourself, which means your consciousness is the maker of yourself.  You do not exist outside consciousness. What you are is the mind that thinks and the consciousness that operates.  You are not the body.  You are also not any kind of physical relation, as you imagine in your mind.  You are the consciousness that you are. Can you imagine what you would be minus consciousness?  You would be nowhere; you would be nothing. You would be a non-entity.  The entity that you are, the meaning that you are, the significance that you seem to have with yourself is the consciousness thereof.  What kind of consciousness have you got?  What do you think of yourself?  Here comes the psychology of philosophical adjustment of oneself. You should not be under the impression that you can be very wise with people and be a poor man, a poor person, in regard to your own self.  The world will see you better than you see y

Peace of mind :1.

Image
Thus we have a series of organisms, or forms of completeness, until we reach the completeness of creation as a whole. The peace that you are speaking of, or want to have, is the extent to which you are in harmony with the organism with which you are inextricably related. What are the things, actually, with which you are connected in this world? With those things, you have to be in a state of harmony. The agitations of the mind, caused by various factors, produce repercussions in the external atmosphere, and it looks like social conflict. There cannot be social conflict unless there is individual disturbance and conflict in one's own self, because society is nothing but many people like you, like me, like anybody. If every individual is filled with inner peace, society will have a completely peaceful atmosphere around. It is no use saying society is bad. Things are worse because you are one of the things, and you are a unit of society. When you complain against the world,

The Nature of the Mind : 7..

Image
The ideas of 'mine' and 'thine' are only the creation of the mind. If the mind is destroyed through Vichara, these ideas will vanish. Destruction of the mind alone is Moksha. "I", "Mine", "Thine", and such other ideas are based on the belief in a multiple universe. The intensity of these ideas differs in the various degrees of ignorance and knowledge that characterise the individuals. There are seven grades of ignorance and seven grades of knowledge. These fourteen stages of evolution are dominated by fourteen degrees of nescience which hide the Reality little by little increasing as the darkness becomes thicker and the intelligence more obscured. The Sadhana that is practised to remove this ignorance should consist in a gradual unveiling of the Self through systematic self-restraint and abstraction. The ideas which reign over the mind are its own offshoots which later on gain independence over its natural quiescent state, and act

The Nature of the Mind : 6.

Image
The enemy of the Atma is the fluctuating mind only. The mind through its power of fluctuation generates countless Vasanas and Sankalpas. Destroy this fluctuating power of the mind through constant Brahma-Vichara. The Atma or the immortal Self is enveloped by the veil of mentation. The vibration of the mind generates fresh Vasanas and Sankalpas by its forward urge to expand itself info the world of nature. Every thought sends forth such currents of creative influence of the strength proportionate to the intensity of the original affirmation, and these creative urges touch the mental being of the other bodies of the universe in various degrees in accordance with their power of receptivity based on their own categories in the stages of their spiritual evolution. When the mental activity is able to affect even bodies completely separated from its own, it goes without saying that its immediate body is tremendously influenced by it. The condition of physical health, mental

The Nature of the Mind : 5.

Image
Just as a silk-worm is caught in its own cocoon, so also man is caught in this vast net of Samsara by his own Sankalpas and Vasanas. The conception that the prison of life of the individual is self-built is brought out by the example of the self-imprisoning of the silkworm with its cocoon which it itself winds around its body. Further escape from the jail becomes difficult. The Jiva winds round itself the cocoon of love for separation from the Eternal Truth through the positive act of being untrue to itself. It is a self-deception, a self-blasphemy, a self-slaughter that is done by allowing oneself to fall into lower Yonis or degraded conditions of existence. It is real suicide, because it is killing the consciousness of the true Self. Negation of Truth is the faithfulness towards something other than Truth, and that something is obviously untruth. He who catches the unreal by discarding the Real is involved in the horrifying wheel of Samsara and once the Jiva is caught wi

The Nature of the Mind : 4.

Image
The first purpose is served by beholding the Self in all beings, by rendering selfless service to other fellow beings, by devotion to the Deity and by severe concentration of the mind. The second one is effected when the mind is completely thinned out and when the Self is realised. When the threads of Vasanas are destroyed the cloth of the mind also disappears from existence. The Ambrosia of Brahman is drunk deep. The soul is drowned in the ocean of joy. The Wisdom-sun rises and the Immortal Life is lived. The Divine Existence, the Almighty Satchidananda is attained. In this state supreme silence alone is. The mind becomes quiescent due to the exhaustion of Prarabdhas even as a lamp unfed by oil gets naturally extinguished. The zenith of being is the cessation of thought, change and action. It is a getting of everything at once, the living of the infinite life, the highest freedom, the most supreme blessing, the greatest happiness and limitlessness of Knowledge which is n