Attaining Peace of Mind : 8.

So, each level of wholeness gets identified with the larger whole of which it is an integral part, from which it cannot separate itself. This is the art of administration, the art of thinking properly, the art of education and the teaching process, learning – everything. This is the knowledge of the Self, as you may call it. It is said that the greatest knowledge is knowledge of the Self. But do not be under the impression that the Self is sitting inside the body. I mentioned to you that the Self is a wholeness that you feel within yourself, a consciousness rather than a limbed body with bones and flesh and nerves, etc. that you are not. You are the operation of consciousness. Remember very well – what would you be if consciousness were not there? You would not be there at all. If consciousness is not there, you also are not there. So when you are there, it is consciousness that is really there.



Satisfaction is not in you or in somebody else. It is in consciousness itself. Satisfaction is uninterrupted performance of consciousness. A larger satisfaction flashes forth when the unit of consciousness that you are operates as a set adjustment with the consciousness of other such units or centres. Who feels happiness? Who feels peace? Consciousness feels peace. It gets disturbed when there is no peace. Who disturbs it? It is disturbed by the wrong notion that it is outside the thing to which it really belongs.

In essence, everybody is a cosmic being. There is no such thing as an individual person. Can you think for a moment that you are a cosmic being? Go on saying, "I am a cosmic being. This little 'me' is organically related to the cosmic being – which means to say, I am a cosmic being. And the others I seem to see outside are not outside me, just as I am not outside the cosmic being." Go on asserting this with faith, with the power of will. "If I cannot stand outside the universe, I am the universe itself." Who will disturb your mind, then? Tell me frankly: who is there to disturb your mind? Nobody can disturb your mind. There is no such thing as 'your' mind. There is only the cosmic mind operating. Can you think through the cosmic mind? When you are thinking now, who is thinking? It is not the student that is sitting here – not this boy, this girl, this man, this woman. No. It is the cosmic mind that is thinking.

Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ...