Satsangam

To, All Members, Devotees would often complain to Sri Ramakrishna that they are endeavouring in ever so many ways to progress spiritually, but are unable to do so. Sri Ramakrishna would console them and point out to them the reasons for their not making sufficient progress. To draw their attention he used to narrate to them an experience from everyday life. Once, there was a priest in a village. He was a very pious man. He was a Brahmin and he knew Sanskrit to some extent. He used to chant Chandi, a collection of hymns in adoration of Divine Mother, regularly. But, he was restless by nature and was also not attracting enough listeners. He could not make much of a living by way of chanting. So, he gave up his profession and started beating drums. Of course, he was not trained enough in that too and his drum beating was quite ordinary and he could not make much of a headway there. Although born in a good family with good samskaras, he gave up the noble pursuit of chanting...

To, All Members, To men who never rise higher than eating, drinking, begetting progeny, and dying, the only gain is in sense-enjoyments; and they must wait and go through many more births and reincarnations to learn to feel even the faintest necessity for anything higher. But those to whom the eternal interests of the soul are of much higher value than the fleeting interests of this mundane life, to whom the gratification of the senses is but like the thoughtless play of the baby, to them, God and the love of God form the highest and the only utility of human existence. After long searches here and there, in temples and churches, in earths and in heavens, at last you come back, completing the circle from where you started, to your own soul and find that He, for whom you have been seeking all over the world, for whom you have been weeping and praying in churches and temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of all mysteries shrouded in the clouds, is nearest of t...

To, All Members, Really speaking it is the utility of the human body which is significant. If it is utilised properly, it can attain devotion to God, emancipation and detachment from worldly affairs. There is nothing which can't be achieved in this human body. It is mentioned in the gita that the highest goal is the realisation of God and there is no greater gain than this. Stress comes when you deny yourself the experience of your authentic feelings for fear of judgment. When you reconnect with your feelings and emotional state without judgment , you free yourself to love and accept all that you are, just as you are, in spite of any circumstance in life. Swami Udit Chaithanya

The process of the self-consecration undertaken through an ever-increasing concentration on the Divine through the thought, the will and the heart, eventually brings the seeker to the point where the Divine fills his life and his focus to such a degree, that nothing else intervenes. The “something else” referred to here represents the ego-consciousness and its attempts to acquire the objects of its desire. The process must eventual lead to the extirpation of the force of desire through a perfect self-surrender of the ego-consciousness to the Divine. Sri Aurobindo explains that in fact, the true transformation of consciousness comes about when the seeker recognises that there is nothing else other than the Divine! “The effective fullness of our concentration on the one thing needful to the exclusion of all else will be the measure of our self-consecration to the One who is alone desirable. But this exclusiveness will in the end exclude nothing except the falsehood of our...

To, All Members, Maharshi then read out from the Tamil version of 'Yoga Vasishta' the story of Deerga Tapasi who had two sons, Punya and Papa. After the death of the parents the younger one mourned the loss and the elder brother consoled him as follows: “Why do you mourn the loss of our parents? I shall tell you where they are; they are only within ourselves and are ourselves. For the life-current has passed through innumerable incarnations, births and deaths, pleasures and pains, etc., just as the water current in a river flows over rocks, pits, sands, elevations and depressions on its way, but still the current is unaffected. Again the pleasures and pains, births and deaths, are like undulations on the surface of seeming water in the mirage of the ego. The only reality is the Self from where the ego appears, and runs through thoughts which manifest themselves as the universe and in which the mothers and fathers, friends and relatives appear and disapp...

To, All Members, Do you know what the truth is? God has made different religions to suit different aspirants, times, and countries. All doctrines are only so many paths; but a path is by no means God Himself. Indeed, one can reach God if one follows any of the paths with whole-hearted devotion. Suppose there are errors in the religion that one has accepted; if one is sincere and earnest, then God Himself will correct those errors. Suppose a man has set out with a sincere desire to visit Jagannath at Puri and by mistake has gone north instead of south; then certainly someone meeting him on the way will tell him: 'My good fellow, don't go that way. Go to the south.' And the man will reach Jagannath sooner or later. If there are errors in other religions, that is none of our business. God, to whom the world belongs, takes care of that. Our duty is somehow to visit Jagannath. (To the Brahmos) The view you hold is good indeed. You describe God a...

To, All Members, In just five years an ordinary Narendra became a Vivekananda. Have you at least become a "Viveki?" - a discriminating individual? He did not get all the information you have got in five years; and yet, because he used to live what he knew and struggled hard to realize it, because he had the heroism and refused to come down and identify himself with the body, mind and intellect, he became Vivekananda. ~ Swami Chinmayananda

To, All Members, Yogic postures ( asanas), breath control ( pranayama), and so on, all create a conducive situation where in the yogi can pick up a moment of joy. The bhogi of course manipulates the world for enjoyment and the rogi is unable to do anything in order to enjoy. The point here is that all of them look upon the atma as something that has to become something. This becoming creates a lot of problems. Any becoming is unbecoming because it always requires yet another becoming. Thus becoming is nothing but continuous becoming. Before becoming there are nothing but problems; while becoming, there is a lot of pain; and after becoming, the person has to become something else again. the problem is therefore never solved. END. Swami Dayananda Saraswati

To, All Members, A yogi on the other hand, is one who does not manipulate the world. such a person is concerned only with his or her thoughts, contending that the pleasurable mental disposition picked up by the bhogi through manipulating the world can be created straight away in the mind. Thus a yogi goes about manipulating the mind and the the.bhogi, goes about manipulating the world. Then there is yet another person, the rogi, who is so diseased that he or she cannot manipulate the world much less the mind. such a person cannot keep himself or herself in good humour because of the pain of illness. nor is he or she healthy enough to manipulate the world. Swami Dayananda Saraswati

To, All Members, In order to become happy in oneself with oneself, a person has to become steadfast in knowledge of Atma. This is not possible for a person who looks upon Atma as a samsari, a limited, sorrowful sinful person. The moment such a person thinks of himself or herself, he or she is unhappy because Atma is looked upon as a doer, an enjoyer, as one who has limited knowledge, an imperfect person, a sinner and so on. Because he or she cannot be happy in the Atma, the person has to look towards something other than the self and must manipulate the world or the mind in order to gain a small degree of happiness. An enjoyer, bhogi, manipulates the world and a yogi manipulates the mind. A bhogi is one who looks upon the world as something to be enjoyed and who goes about manipulating situations, manipulating the world, to create conducive situations where in he or she can discover a moment of joy. The situation thus created pleases the person - but only f...

To, All Members, People worship the lord, why do they worship the lord -- you ask me. Don't ask me why do people worship idols. You never worship the idol; you always worship the Lord. Well, for self-realization, why do you worship the Lord ? To know that Lord is everywhere. Until you know that, you have to keep your ego under check. In fact the Lord is everything and so you ego is swallowed by Lord. But you think you are different from the Lord and so you place a flower at the feet of the Lord and your ego is kept under check. Worship brings about antahkarana-suddhi, purity of the mind, which is needed to understand that Lord is everywhere. "I am everything", is self-realization. "Lord is everywhere" or "I am everything", both are one and the same. Self-realization is not elimination of thoughts. Self-realization is to know the fact that I am the Self which is everything or that the Lord is everything and that Lord I am...

To, All Members, You do not need even a stone for worship. Stone also for us is Lord, but we do not require even a stone; we require only haladi(turmeric) powder. We make a lump out of haladi and then say. Asmin bimbe mahaganapatim avahayami (I invoke the great Lord Ganapathi in this lump.) All you have is water in a bucket and you say. Gange ca yamune devi godavari sarasvati narmade sindhu kaveri jalesmin sannidhim kuru.  ( O Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Sarasvati, Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri, may you all be present in this (bucket of) water.) In this manner, everyday people bath in the Ganga, Yamuna etc. - they need not go to the Ganga, Yamuna etc; local water is enough. All there is, is the attitude.  It is everywhere and everyday it is the same. What is there in the picture of your father ? It is just a black and white photograph, but you place a flower there. Why ? As a mark of respect to the father and not to the piece of paper. And without...

To, All Members, We have received this particular legacy in heritage and therefore the idol invokes in us the devotee and that is a great heritage. Nobody worships the idol; everybody worships the Lord. There are sculptors in Rajasthan.  They make marble idols. An idol of Lord Siva was supplied by a Rajasthani sculptor to a temple in Bombay. Certain parts of the idol, the eyelashes, the lips, the naga (snake) etc.. were color-painted by the sculptor. In course of some five or six years, that painting got erased. The manager of the temple wrote to the sculptor asking him to come to Bombay and repaint the idol. Do you know what was the reply of the sculptor ? Who am I to paint the Lord ? If you want a new idol, I will make one and send to you, but I won't paint my bhagavan. Why ? Because the sculptor creates a statue, an idol and not the Lord. Do you know what he does at the installation of the idol ? He also attends the function. Until the in...

To, All Members, Question : Swamiji, What is the role of idol worship? Swamiji : What is an idol ? We say that the whole creation is bhagavan, the Lord. Every form is Lord's form: therefore in any one form I can invoke the Lord. Traditionally, some forms have been handed over to us and the bhagavad-buddhi [seeing is as the Lord] is associated with those forms in our mind. Today, they spend a lot of money for creating such identity. 7 O'clock means a blade. Lux means a toilet soap. Who creates that buddhi ? The commercials in the media. For generations the Lord is worshiped in certain forms and those forms have been handed over to you. The tradition did not begin just yesterday. It is coming down to us for generations- a great benefit! When i see Ganapathi, I recognize the form as the Lord, not as a strange creature with an odd head and a big belly - I recognize the form as the Lord and this is what we call 'Tradition'. This is a treasure, we should...

3. DISCIPLINE IMPLIES A CERTAIN MASTERY OF THE MIND : Part-2. To, All Members, Again, then, we come back to a means of knowledge because you do not interpret an experience in any other way than by what you know. All interpretations depend entirely upon your knowledge, which is dependent on the pramaana available to you. And all the pramaanas that one has, perception, inference, etc., operate by maintaining a duality — duality of the doer, the object of doing, the act of doing itself, the instrument of doing, etc. All these are collectively called as kaarakas. Retaining the duality alone, one's pramaanas, the various means of knowledge, operate. Perception and inference do not swallow the kaarakas. Only the Agama, the teaching, swallows them. It says that you are not the knower, pramaataa; you are the very essence of the knower, the knowledge, and the object of knowledge, all three of them being one and the same. In this way, the Agama resolves the division. ...

3. DISCIPLINE IMPLIES A CERTAIN MASTERY OF THE MIND : Part-1. To, All Members, As a discipline, however, nirvikalpa samaadhi is great because, when you gather such an experience, it indicates that you have a certain mastery. Otherwise, you would not have been able to have the experience of nirvikalpa samaadhi. Because a certain mastery is involved, nirvikalpasamaadhi is considered to be the height of experience that one can gain; it is like a prize, the end for those who want to gain experience. To say that it indicates a certain saattvikavrtti on one's part is fine, but to say that after you come out of nirvikalpasamaadhi, you will see the world entirely differently is not correct because how you see the world depends purely on your vision of reality. Having experienced nirvikalpa samaadhi, you have to interpret that experience. And to interpret the experience, you must have a pramaaaa, a means of knowledge. Swami Dayananda To be continued  .... ...

2. EXPERIENCE ALWAYS HAS AN END : Part-2. To, All Members, Previously, you lost certain things but retained yourself, but now you have experienced a much greater loss — the loss of yourself…….. And even if it lasts for some time, there is sadness because it ends. All that can be said is that I was eternal for half an hour! For that period of time, the division between the knower, known, and knowledge that is usually there went away; time itself went away. For half an hour you were free from time, which means you were timeless, eternal. And, after half an hour, you become what? Non-eternal. Even if you have samaadhi for two days, you become non-eternal. In this way, it is no different than being in a coma for two days and then coming out of it. While in the coma, there was no division whatsoever and the person also did not know what was happening. Therefore, the length of time that one is in nirvikalpasamaadhi has no meaning. Swami Dayananda To be continued...

2. EXPERIENCE ALWAYS HAS AN END : Part-1. To, All Members, But nirvikalpasamaadhi has an end; it is something you come out of. All that is needed is for someone to drop something in front of you or to start a vacuumcleaner in the next house. As soon as you become aware of the sound, you are not only out of nirvikalpasamaadhi. Nirvikalpasamaadhi is something that does not last forever; you will come out of it in time. And, once you are out of it, it becomes a past experience that you then talk to others about — 'Swamiji, yesterday I had the most wonderful thing happen to me!' Even the language used to describe the experience is different! But as soon as the thoughts come, or someone begins hammering, or a child begins to cry, or a bug creeps up your leg, real or imagined, it is gone; you have come out of nirvikalpasamaadhi. There are those who will tell you that once you experience nirvikalpasam¡dhi and you come out of that experience, the world will be di...

To, All Members, Ashtanga yoga talks about the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi which is a state of absorption in which there is no second thing. Pujya Swamiji says in Gita Home Study, "The knower, known, and the instrument of knowledge — all three of them — coalesce into one experience lasting for a length of time. Although it does not take away the samsara, it is definitely the last word in samsara. Nirvikalpa samaadhi is the opposite of deep sleep. In deep sleep there is nirvikalpa alright, meaning that the knowerknown-knowledge division is not there. But, in nirvikalpasamadhi the mind is awake, unlike in deep sleep where the mind is sleeping. In both cases, there is ignorance, the difference being that when the mind is asleep there is no thought, whereas in nirvikalpasamaadhi, the mind is awake, meaning there is thought. Therefore, the greatest thing you can have in life is nirvikalpa-sam¡dhi, which is why it is the greatest hooker also. It baits people because...

To, All Members, "Difficulties come to test you, and thereby to help you by strengthening your will, patience, and power of endurance. Be bold. Be cheerful. Be calm, cool. Be collected at all times, even in the face of difficulties. There is no spiritual sadhana (practice) completely free from obstacles and difficulties. God sends consolation, encouragement at every step to the sincere aspirant. Defeat and failure have their purpose." 'This world is your teacher. There is a lesson in everything. There is a lesson in each experience. Learn it and become wise. Every failure is a stepping stone to success. Every difficulty or disappointment is a trial of your faith. Every unpleasant incident or temptation is a test of your inner strength. Therefore Nil Desperandum. March forward Hero!' - Swami Sivananda

To, All Members, Good company means company of the real viz. God and we can get that good company by giving up the unreal. We also use the unreal Matter ( Prakrti ) for good company, for example tongue for good discussion, hands for good action, mind for good thinking and eyes for reading the scriptures, but their aim is to attain the real by renouncing the unreal. The human mind, freed from the disturbances or "static" of restlessness, is empowered to perform all the functions of complicated radio mechanisms-sending as well as receiving thoughts and tuning out undesirable ones. As the power of a radio-broadcasting station is regulated by the amount of electrical current it can utilise, so the effectiveness of a human radio depends on the degree of will power possessed by each person. You have to live with the members of the family. Therefore learn the art of living in the family. The art is that you should perform your duty to your wife, parents, son...

To, All Members, 1. 'What is non-attachment?' As thoughts arise, destroying them utterly without any residue in the very place of their origin is non-attachment. Just as the pearl-diver ties a stone to his waist, sinks to the bottom of the sea and there takes the pearls, so each one of us should be endowed with non-attachment, dive within oneself and obtain the Self-Pearl. 2. 'Is there no difference between waking and dream?' Waking is long and a dream short; other than this there is no difference. Just as waking happenings seem real while awake. so do those in a dream while dreaming. In dream the mind takes on another body. In both waking and dream states thoughts. names and forms occur simultaneously. Sri Ramana Maharishi

To, All Members, Freedom can never be true of name and form; it is the clay out of which we (the pots) are made; then it is limited and not free, so that freedom can never be true of the related. One pot can never say "I am free" as a pot; only as it loses all ideas of form does it become free. The whole universe is only the Self with variations, the one tune made bearable by variation; sometimes there are discords, but they only make the subsequent harmony more perfect. In the universal melody three ideas stand out — freedom, strength, and sameness. If your freedom hurts others, you are not free there. You must not hurt others. Sri Ramakrishna

To, All Members, ”There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved.” “The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women.” “Woman has suffered for aeons, and that has given her infinite patience and infinite preserverance.” “The idea of perfect womanhood is perfect independence.” “The soul has neither sex, nor caste nor imperfection.” “Soul has no sex, it is neither male nor female. It is only in the body that sex exists, and the man who desires to reach the spirit cannot at the same time hold sex distinctions. (CW ,V.4, P.176) "It is very difficult to understand why in this country [India] so much difference is made between men and women, whereas the Vedanta declares that one and the same conscious Self is present in all beings. You always criticize the women, but say what have you done for their uplift? Writing down Smritis etc., and binding them by hard rules, the men have turned the ...

We generally characterize the major difference in psychology between animals and human beings as the result of the ability of the human being to utilize the Reason, a higher form of intelligence than the basic sense apparatus and physical mind that clearly is predominant in the animal consciousness. At the same time, we can see elements of the power of Reason in the animal kingdom, and cannot deny that most human beings utilize the sense and physical mind capacities as their primary tool for navigating their way through their lives. Sri Aurobindo points out that “…reason is only a particular and limited utilitarian and instrumental activity that proceeds from something much greater than itself, from a power that dwells in an ether more luminous, wider, illimitable.” There appears to be actually a ladder of consciousness which does not provide clearly defined separate steps between the animal and man, and which has not finished its ascent with the appearance of the reasoning f...