The Atma Jyoti Blog

Just before going to India for the first time in 1962, I had the great good fortune to meet and hear Sri A. B. Purani, the administrator of the renowned Aurobindo Ashram of Pondicherry, India. From his lips I heard the most brilliant expositions of Vedic philosophy; nothing in my subsequent experience has equaled them. In one talk he told the following story:

In ancient India there lived a most virtuous Brahmin who was considered by all to be the best authority on philosophy. One day the local king ordered him to appear before him. When he did so, the king said: “I have three questions that puzzle-even torment-me: Where is God? Why don’t I see Him? And what does he do all day? If you can’t answer these three questions I will have your head cut off.” The Brahmin was appalled and terrified, because the answers to these questions were not just complex, they were impossible to formulate. In other words: he did not know the answers. So his execution date was set.

On the morning of that day the Brahmin’s teenage son appeared and asked the king if he would release his father if he-the son-would answer the questions. The king agreed, and the son asked that a container of milk be brought to him. It was done. Then the boy asked that the milk be churned into butter. That, too, was done.

“The first two of your questions are now answered,” he told the king.

The king objected that he had been given no answers, so the son asked: “Where was the butter before it was churned?”

“In the milk,” replied the king.

“In what part of the milk?” asked the boy.

“In all of it.”

“Just so, agreed the boy, “and in the same way God is within all things and pervades all things.”

“Why don’t I see Him, then,” pressed the king.

“Because you do not ‘churn’ your mind and refine your perceptions through meditation. If you do that, you will see God. But not otherwise. Now let my father go.”

“Not at all,” insisted the king. “You have not told me what God does all day.”

“To answer that,” said the boy, “we will have to change places. You come stand here and let me sit on the throne.”

The request was so audacious the king complied, and in a moment he was standing before the enthroned Brahmin boy who told him: “This is the answer. One moment you were here and I was there. Now things are reversed. God perpetually lifts up and casts down every one of us. In one life we are exalted and in another we are brought low-oftentimes in a single life this occurs, and even more than once. Our lives are completely in His hand, and He does with us as He wills.”

The Brahmin was released and his son was given many honors and gifts by the king.

Read more articles on Meditation.

The upanishads teach us the truth of the unity of the atman and Brahman. Therefore that truth is known as advaita, “not two,” meaning that there is no separation of the atman and Brahman at any time. Simplistic thinkers, especially in the West, immediately begin to decry the idea of tapasya, yoga, or any other discipline, insisting very shrilly that there is no need for such, that to engage in spiritual practice is to affirm a delusion of separation between us and God. They usually end up denying that either we or God even exist, advocating a kind of petulant, bullying nihilism, reminding any sensible person of Krishna’s indictment: “These malignant creatures are full of egoism, vanity, lust, wrath, and consciousness of power. They loathe me, and deny my presence both in themselves and in others. They are enemies of all men and of myself.” (Bhagavad Gita 16:18)

Drastic words, these, but they address a drastic mental and spiritual aberration. Read the entire sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita for a full outline of such kinds of people. This is but one of the reasons why a continual study of the Gita is necessary for those who do not wish to go (or be led) astray in their spiritual pursuit. No student of the Gita could ever fall into such absurd pitfalls as these “advaitans” whose only unity is their absorption in the illusion of the ego.

The true perspective

The truth is that the realization of God not only can but must be pursued. We do not pursue God, understand, for God is everywhere and always one with us. Rather, we pursue the revelation of that eternal oneness and its manifestation on all levels of our present existence. Regarding this, a yogi-adept of the twentieth century, Dr. I. K. Taimni*, remarked in his book The Science of Yoga:

“According to the yogic philosophy it is possible to rise completely above the illusions and miseries of life and to gain infinite knowledge, bliss, and power through enlightenment here and now while we are still living in the physical body. And if we do not attain this enlightenment while we are still alive we will have to come back again and again into this world until we have accomplished this appointed task. So it is not a question of choosing the path of yoga or rejecting it. It is a question of choosing it now or in some future life. It is a question of gaining enlightenment as soon as possible and avoiding the suffering in the future or postponing the effort and going through further suffering which is unnecessary and avoidable. This is the meaning of Yoga Sutra 2:16: ‘The misery which is not yet come can and is to be avoided.’ No vague promise of an uncertain postmortem happiness this, but a definite scientific assertion of a fact verified by the experience of innumerable yogis, saints, and sages who have trodden the path of yoga throughout the ages.”

It is absolutely sure: “Seek, and ye shall find.”

* Dr. I. K. Taimni was a professor of chemistry in India. He wrote many excellent books on philosophy and spiritual practice, including The Science of Yoga, a commentary on the Yoga Sutras. For many years he was the spiritual head of the Esoteric Section of the Theosphical Society headquartered in Adyar, Madras (Tamilnadu), and traveled the world without publicity or notoriety, quietly instructing many sincere aspirants in the path to Supreme Consciousness.

For more on this subject, read Two Views on Meditation–and a Third.

Keep up to date with the latest tips on meditation and practical spiritual life. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.

All the world seeks happiness. Our American Declaration of Independence says that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right for every human being. But see how miserable people really are beneath the frantic veneer of the pursuit of happiness in an ever-changing and pain-producing world. The problem? We are looking in the wrong direction. We are seeking outward when we should be seeking inward. We are seeking the non-self instead of the Self. From the Katha Upanishad we learn the right line of action.

“The man who has learned that the Self is separate from the body, the senses, and the mind, and has fully known him, the soul of truth, the subtle principle–such a man verily attains to him, and is exceeding glad, because he has found the source and dwelling place of all felicity. Truly do I believe, O Nachiketa, that for thee the gates of joy stand open.” (Katha Upanishad 1:2:13)

Separate

“The Self is separate from the body, the senses, and the mind.” Therefore the body, senses, and mind cannot even “see” the Self as an object, and certainly cannot possibly experience the Self to any degree. The happiness experienced by body, senses, and mind is not true happiness at all, but an approximation, a sham that distracts us from the real thing, inevitably leading us to frustration and all-around misery. This must be learned. Then the Self itself must be known.

Soul of truth, subtle principle

The Self is the very soul of Truth, of Reality. It is not just the basis of reality, it IS reality. Apart from it there simply is nothing. It is subtle beyond all conception–but not beyond all experience. It is when we enter fully into the Being that is the Self, that we “attain to him,” that boundless happiness shall be ours. For the Boundless itself shall be ours.

Source and dwelling

Yama then tells us an important fact: the Self is the source of all and the dwelling place of all felicity. Now this is most intriguing. We are saying that the Self is all there really is, and then we hear that it is the source of “all.” This is the key to true non-dual comprehension. Sri Ramakrishna explained that at first we follow the path of negation saying “Not this, not that,” the idea being that everything we can see or think of is not the Real. But when we come to the real end of that approach–which is not just intellection or mind-gaming, but the inner path of meditation–and turn back we will say “ALL this!” That is, we will see that everything is the Real, that the unreal was only our way of seeing and (mis)understanding it. The whole world, said Sri Ramakrishna, will then be seen as “a mart of joy.”

Unless this is understood at the beginning we will end up being just another dyspeptic world-and-life-denying grouch, claiming that our dryness and grimness is jnana (wisdom). “There is a state beyond bliss, you know,” grated one of them to a friend of mine who dared to find joy in the Self. India abounds with these anatmic misfits and we have plenty of them in the West, too. (One is too many.)

All that is dwells in–is rooted in–the Self and is therefore an expression of divine Ananda. What a wonderful world-view: one that sees not “the world” but Spirit. We do not go from one point to another to pass from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to the Light, from death to Immortality. It is only a matter of changing our base of perception. This is the real alchemy, changing the lead of mundane experience to the gold of supernal joy.

The conclusion

No one is excluded from this glorious truth, it extends to all and is vital to all in an equal degree. No one is nearer or farer from the Self–it embraces all. This is the real Gospel–the Evangelion, the Good News humanity needs so desperately: “Truly, for thee the gates of joy stand open.”

Let us pass through them!

Don’t miss the next articles. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.

A continued commentary on “Those who meditate with perseverance, constantly working hard at it, are the wise who experience Nirvana, the ultimate freedom from chains.”
–Dhammapada 23

We are bound by millions (if not billions) of chains, yet meditation pursued rightly will dissolve them all. In the meantime we have to make sure we are not binding more chains on us, like the washed dog that immediately runs out and rolls in the filth to counteract the cleanliness. Here, too, meditation is the answer, for the insight born of meditation enables us to see the folly of bondage and the understanding to turn away from more involvement in chaining up of ourselves.

Nirvana

The purpose of all this is Nirvana. Just as a child cannot comprehend adulthood, so we cannot really understand just what Nirvana is. But one thing we can know: it is the opposite of where we now find ourselves! Attempts at definition are risky. Some time back I saw a television show on which a reputed “authority” on Buddhism was asked by an interviewer to describe Nirvana. He proceeded to give a checklist of the characteristics of Nirvana–every one of which is listed by Buddha in the Pali sutras as NOT Nirvana, though many mistake them for Nirvana. It was sort of like hearing a Christian recite the opposite qualities listed by Jesus in the Beatitudes or a Jew reciting the exact opposites to the Ten Commandments.

But let us give ourselves at least an approximation, a whiff, of what Nirvana surely entails: “It is a supramundane state that can be attained in this life itself. It is also explained as extinction of passions, but not a state of nothingness. It is an eternal blissful state of relief that results from the complete eradication of the passions.” So says the Venerable Narada Thera.

And so seek all of us.

Read the first part of this article: Meditation–Realization vs. Speculation

Keep up to date with the latest tips on meditation and practical spiritual life. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.

“Those who meditate with perseverance, constantly working hard at it, are the wise who experience Nirvana, the ultimate freedom from chains.”
–Dhammapada 23

One time a man asked me if he could speak with me about some problems and questions he had. “Why bother?” brayed an eavesdropper, “All he will do is tell you to meditate!” Yes, it is true: meditation is the only solution. Many things are needed to support our meditation and ensure its success, but meditation is the whole idea for those seeking real freedom of being.

Paramhansa Yogananda, writing about Yogiraj Shyama Charan Lahiri, one of nineteenth-century India’s greatest yogis, said: “The great guru taught his disciples to avoid theoretical discussion of the scriptures. ‘He only is wise who devotes himself to realizing, not reading only, the ancient revelations,’ he said. ‘Solve all your problems through meditation. Exchange unprofitable religious speculations for actual God-contact. Clear your mind of dogmatic theological debris; let in the fresh, healing waters of direct perception. Attune yourself to the active inner Guidance; the Divine Voice has the answer to every dilemma of life. Though man’s ingenuity for getting himself into trouble appears to be endless, the Infinite Succor is no less resourceful.’”

Long before these wise words of Lahiri Mahasaya, Buddha made clear to his students again and again that meditation was the way to freedom.

Perseverance

Wonderful as it is, meditation is no magic trick. Only those gain its benefit who “meditate with perseverance, constantly working hard at it.” So two things must characterize our meditation practice: constancy and effective effort. We keep on and keep on, never stopping for a moment in the endeavor to continually direct our awareness toward Reality. And that endeavor cannot be done in a lackadaisical manner. The Path is walked, or even run, along, not shuffled or moseyed along.

The great twentieth-century Roman Catholic philosopher, Dietrich van Hildebrand, wrote in his masterful study of spiritual evolution, Transformation in Christ, that the majority of people suffer from what he calls “discontinuity.” That is, most people simply cannot sustain either effort or thought unless driven by the base passions. In other words, they have no real freedom of mind and will, though they think they do. Addictions impel us, but wisdom does not, for freedom is both its goal and its requisite. Hence, our sustained effort at meditation must come directly from within us as a fully conscious and wilful choice. Every day this is true: each step on the path is a conscious choice–clear to the end. This is not a path for the timid or the lazy or the merely curious.

Next: Gaining Freedom from the Chains of Delusion

Read more Teaching of Buddha.

Keep up to date with the latest posts. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.

This is Part 13 of A Catechism of Enlightenment–a serialized commentary on “A Method Of Enlightening A Disciple” from Shankara’s Upadeshasahasri–A Thousand Teachings

30) “He is never seen, but is the Seer; He is never heard, but is the Hearer; He is never thought of, but is the Thinker; He is never known, but is the Knower. There is no other seer than He, there is no other hearer than He, there is no other thinker than He, there is no other knower than He. He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. Everything else but Him is perishable.” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3:7:23)

Our nature is consciousness, so we are solely witnesses of all that is spread out around us as relative existence. Seeing it, we find ourselves “in” the ever-changing drama and begin to think that we are a part of it. Unfortunately, the seer begins to think he is the seen. And since we live in this dream along with billions of other dreamers who, like us, cannot perceive their real nature, we are told by all those voices that we are the ever-shifting patterns of light and shadow, that there is nothing but the shadow-plays in which our consciousness is immersed. So how could we be other than confused?

But in time we begin to intuit the unseen seer, the unheard hearer, the unthought thinker, the unknown knower. When we develop the courage to dare the venture, we seek out the way to find this Unknown, however much others–and our past experience–may insist that there is no such Person. When that urgency is well-developed in us, then we find others who hold the same conviction, and find the testimony of those that have sought and found. Writings of sages come to us. If our aspiration is strong enough we may even come into the orbit of those who have sought and found, whose very existence will be our assurance that the Goal can be reached.

“But if that is true, why don’t I see it?” This question in many variations is asked by us and others when we first hear of realities hitherto unheard of by us. Shankara tells us by citing the statement of the Chandogya Upanishad:

31) “The mind consists of food.” (Chandogya Upanishad 6:5:4; 6:6:5)

This is incredibly important. It is the mind that marks us out from animals; it is the mind that enables us to seek and find the Goal Supreme. The mind is an essential factor of liberation because it controls the way we handle all the other aspects of our being. For this reason Sri Ramakrishna continually told aspirants: “The mind is everything.”

This upanishadic verse tells us that “the mind consists of food.” Some of the other verses from that section of the upanishad are these that explain how food becomes mind. “Food when eaten becomes threefold. What is coarsest in it becomes feces, what is medium becomes flesh and what is subtlest becomes mind.” (Chandogya Upanishad 6:5:1) “That which is the subtlest part of curds rises when they are churned and becomes butter. In the same manner, that which is the subtlest part of the food that is eaten rises and becomes mind.” (Chandogya Upanishad 6:6:1, 2) So the character or quality of the food we eat determines the character and quality of the mind. This is a principle we must take extremely seriously. Many mental and emotional problems arise solely from diet. And the quality of intellect depends utterly on diet. There is no possibility of anyone comprehending the full range of dharma and esoteric philosophy unless their mind–and therefore their diet–is pure. This applies to the practice of yoga as well.

If the mind is everything, so also is our diet. Diet is discussed in the Bhagavad Gita (17:7-10) and in Spiritual Benefits of a Vegetarian Diet.

32) “Having created all this, He entered into it. Having entered into it, He became both the manifested and the unmanifested, both the defined and undefined, both the supported and unsupported, both the intelligent and the non-intelligent, both the real and the unreal. The Satya [the Real, the True] became all this: whatever there is. Therefore call It the True.” (Taittiriya Upanishad 2:6)

Brahman has not really “become” anything, but we have only the language of this world to speak in. The important points are that Brahman is within all AS all, that even the “unreal” is real in essence, and that all this should be called Real–not sneered at or despised as “unreality.” This is real Advaita.

33) “Entering into them He rules all creatures.” (Taittiriya Aranyaka 3:11:12)

There is no chaos. Everything is perfectly ordered and under divine control, whatever the appearance may be.

34) “This Self has entered into these bodies, as a razor lies hidden in its case, or as fire, which sustains the world, lies hidden in its source. People do not see the Self, for when viewed in parts It is incomplete….The Self alone is to be meditated upon, for in It all these become unified. Of all these, this Self alone should be known, for one knows all these through It.” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1:4:7)

Although Brahman is ever present, we do not see It because we are only looking at fragments of reality. Only in the Self, in Brahman, are the fragments united into the Whole. Therefore we should meditate on the Self, leaving all partial things aside. Yet, when we know the Self, all will be seen by us as the Self in perfect unity.

35) “So, piercing the end [the brahmarandhra, the crown of the head], the Lord entered through that door. That door is known as the vidriti, the cleft. This is the place of bliss.” (Aitareya Upanishad 1:3:12)

The Self enters the body through the crown of the head, the brahmarandhra, “the hole of Brahman,” the subtle (astral) aperture in the crown of the head, and dwells in the thousand-petaled lotus (sahasrara) that corresponds to the brain in the physical body. Liberated beings are said to exit the physical body through this aperture at death. Consequently yogis keep their awareness in the sahasrara as it is the abode of bliss.

36) “That Self hidden in all beings does not shine forth; but It is seen by subtle seers through their one-pointed and subtle intellects.” (Katha Upanishad 1:3:12)

Here is another very yogic citation. None but those who focus and refine their minds, themselves becoming focused and refined, can see the Self. “Therefore, Arjuna, become a yogi.” (Bhagavad Gita 6:46)

37) “That Deity thought: ‘Let Me now enter into those [potentially] sentient beings.’” (Chandogya Upanishad 6:3:2)

Here the upanishad is speaking of the bodies which can become sentient–at least through association–by the entrance of Brahman and the Self.

38) “The embodied one rests happily in the nine-gated city.” (Bhagavad Gita 5:13)

The Self is ever immersed in its own blissful being, even though embodied in the subtle and physical bodies. Incarnation is not a misery for the spirit–only for the ego-mind. This is an important point because many think that bliss is attained by dropping the body or somehow cutting off awareness of it. What is really needed is reestablishment in the Self. Nothing else will work.

• Read more installments of A Catechism of Enlightenment.

Keep up to date with the latest posts. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.