The Essence of Dharmam - 5. Swami Krishnananda

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Saturday, May 15, 2021.07:13.AM.
(Spoken on February 11th, 1973)
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We generally have a give-and-take attitude. When you perform an action, put a question to yourself: “What will it bring to me? Why should I do it?” This is a question which always comes up in one’s mind whenever one is asked to do anything. The action must produce a result, which means to say we are always accustomed to perform actions with an ulterior end or a motive, and never in the spirit of karma yoga. Karma yoga is action which is an end in itself because it is spirit manifesting itself. The spirit is an end, and not a means.

Now I am slowly coming to the point as to why spirituality is connected with universality. If the universe is the determining factor of every conduct and action of an individual, the individual being a part of the universe, and it being clear at the same time that the fact of the individual’s bearing a relevance to cosmic existence also implies the universal determining individual action, then the nature of the universe remains to be explained.

What the scientists can understand is that the universe is a single force. What our modern scientists tell us, having understood it thoroughly, is that the universe is a complete continuum of a single uniformly moving force, of which every individual is a part. But what the scientists cannot understand is that the universe is conscious. It is not jada; it is not inert.

Now the question comes, “How is the universe conscious?” I will come to that point slowly again. The scientists’ viewpoint is that the universe is a single undivided continuum of force. Mark the word ‘undivided’, which means to say that there is nothing external to the universe, outside the universe. Even according to our top physicists of modern times, there is nothing external to the universe. The universe is one, and it is one in a very peculiar sense that it is an undivided continuum. 

A continuum is the nature of that particular pattern of existence wherein divisions cannot be imagined. It is like the flow of the Ganga, the mass of water in the ocean, or whatever you may regard as a suitable comparison for this state of affairs. The universe is a continuity and a pattern of flow of events which cannot be distinguished ultimately one from the other. That means to say, there is nothing outside the universe. I am repeating this again and again so that the point may become clear to your mind. There is nothing external to the universe, according to modern physical science.

#Then, where is consciousness? Does consciousness exist, or does it not exist? If it does exist, is it part of the universal continuum or is it outside the continuum? 

We cannot say that it does not exist, because who told us the universe is a continuum of forces? It is the consciousness of the scientist that tells this. The inert physics or the unconscious universe does not speak. The universe does not say, “I am a continuum.” It is the intelligence of the scientist that says the universe is an undivided continuum. Does this consciousness or intelligence of the scientist exist? Naturally, the scientist has to say it exists. Does it exist outside the continuum or inside the continuum? We cannot say that it is outside the continuum, because there is nothing external to it. If it is internal, we create a division in the continuum. 

It has already been accepted that the continuum is such a state of affairs that we cannot imagine a division in it. There cannot be consciousness seeping into the structure of the cosmos like cloth which has been soaked in water. If we dip cloth in a bucket of water, every fibre of cloth is permeated by water. Yet, water is not cloth, cloth is not water. We cannot say that the cloth is a continuum. It is not. It has divisions within it. But the present day scientists discovered that the universe is an undivided continuum. So consciousness has no place at all in the cosmos, and yet it exists.

To be continued ....

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