Joy on
birth and
grief on
death —
All such
affairs are
acts of
illusion.
Ah! I am
Brahma, Ah!
You are
Brahma,
Ah! This
universe is the
body of
Brahma;
Getting this light by cogitating and meditating
He who shuns attachment
like witness bird
And proceeds on
path
of salvation,
Realizes one day
his oneness
with God.
Jeevandhara (Sushil Kumar Srivastava)
1.
Ignorance is the great mother of all misery. The basis of all
ignorance is that we are little minds, that we are little bodies; it is
the mother of all selfishness.
2.
Every sense-activity results in a reaction. Everything is
evanescent. Enjoyment, misery, luxury, wealth, power and poverty, even
life itself, are all evanescent.
3.
Happiness is only found in the Spirit. No happiness was ever
found in the senses. However majority seek it in things which are
evanescent and not real.
4.
Do not talk of the wickedness of the world and all its sins. Do
not weaken yourself any more. Sin and misery are results of weakness.
Men are taught from childhood that they are weak and sinners. Teach them
that they are all glorious children of immortality, even those who are
weakest in manifestation. Let positive, strong, helpful thought enter
into their brains from very childhood.
5.
Man is man so long as he is struggling to rise above nature, and
this nature is both internal and external.
6.
The ordinary men cannot understand that is subtle. The masses
admire the lion that kills a thousand lambs because they find pleasure
only in manifestation of physical strength.
7.
Utility is not test of truth. Societies should be moulded upon
truth, and truth has not to adjust itself to society. That society is
the greatest where the highest truths become practical.
8.
Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals; place them day
and night before you, and out of that will come great work. Talk not
about impurity, but say that we are pure.
9.
Maya is not a theory; it is simply a statement of facts about the
universe as it exists. We are born in this Maya, we live in it, we think
in it, we dream in it. We are devils in this Maya, and we are gods in
this Maya. Maya is the sum total of time, space and causation
(Desh-kala-nimitta).This time and space and cause has been further
reduced into Nama-Rupa (name and form). Suppose there is a wave in the
ocean. The wave is distinct from the ocean only in its form and name,
and this form and this name cannot have any separate existence from the
wave; they exist only with the wave. The wave may subside, but the same
amount of water remains, even if the name and form that were on the wave
vanish for ever. So this Maya is what makes the difference between me
and you, between all animals and man. In fact, it is this Maya that
causes the Atman (the Self) to be caught, as it were, in so many
millions of beings, and these are distinguishable only through name and
form. If you leave it alone, let name and form go, all this variety
vanishes for ever, and you are what you really are.
10.
The different philosophies seem to agree that this Atman,
whatever it is, has neither form nor shape; and that which has neither
form nor shape must be omnipresent. Time begins with mind; space also is
in the mind. Causation cannot stand without time. Without the idea of
succession there cannot be any idea of causation. Therefore, time, space
and causation are in the mind, and as this Atman is beyond the mind and
is formless it must be beyond time, space and causation. Now if it is
beyond time, beyond space and beyond causation, it must be infinite. The
infinite cannot be two. If the soul be infinite, there can be only one
Soul. The Real Man, therefore is one and infinite, the omnipresent
Spirit. And the apparent man is only a limitation of that Real Man.
11.
Every particle in this body is continually changing; no one has
the same body for many minutes together, and yet we think of the same
body. If we take the whole universe as one unit, the infinite Unit is
unchangeable, immoveable and absolute.
12.
There is no individuality except in the Infinite. He alone lives
whose life is in the whole universe and the more we concentrate our
lives on limited things the faster we go towards death.
13.
It is the God within your own self that is propelling you to seek
for Him, to realize Him.
14.
Self-abnegation is the centre of all morality. The idea of “me
and mine” --Ahankar and Mamata—is result of past superstition.
15.
He who sees in this world of manifoldness that One running
through all, in this world of death he who finds that One Infinite Life,
and he who finds that One Light and Knowledge unto him belongs eternal
peace.
16.
He that is the Essence of your soul, He is the Truth, He is the
Self; thou art That.
17.
The Absolute is that ocean where you and I and suns and stars and
every thing else are waves of that ocean.
18.
The materialists admit that out of this matter all hope and
religion and everything have come. He calls it matter and a yogi calls
it God.
19.
The dualists all the world over naturally believe in a Personal
God who is purely anthropomorphic, who like a great potentate in this
world is pleased with some and displeased with others. The dualist comes
to the conclusion that God has favourites, and he hopes to be one of
them. In every religion the idea is “We are the favourites of our God,
and only by believing as we do, can you be taken into favour with Him.”
Therefore, in the nature of things dualistic religions are bound to
fight and quarrel with each other.
20.
The material aspect of God is manifested in the universe or
cosmos. A yogi says, “Whatever exists in this universe is to be covered
with the Lord.” The spiritual aspect of God has only three attributes---
that He is Infinite Existence, Infinite Knowledge and Infinite Bliss.
21.
The Discipline of Knowledge does not in reality denounce the
world. It simply means deification of the world. It says, “Possess
property but have no idea of proprietorship.”
22.
When the senses are held as slaves by the human soul, when they
can no longer disturb the mind, then the Yogi has reached the goal. When
all vain desires of the heart have been given up, then this very mortal
becomes immortal, then he becomes one with God even here. When all the
knots of the heart are cut asunder, then the mortal becomes immortal,
and he enjoys Brahman here (on this earth).
23.
The Sat-Chit-Anand---Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute is the
nature, the birthright of the Soul and all the manifestations that we
see are Its expressions, dimly or brightly manifesting Itself. Even
death is but a manifestation of that Real Existence. Birth and death,
life and decay, degeneration and regeneration are all manifestations of
that Oneness. The seed breaks into pieces, degenerates as it were, and
regeneration comes out of that degeneration. The tree comes out of seed;
goes back to the seed, the beginning and the end are the same. The earth
comes out of its cause and returns to it.
24.
We know that if we can find the beginning we can find the end. If
that is so, take this whole evolutionary series, from the protoplasm at
one end to the perfect man at the other, and this whole series is one
life. In the end we find the perfect man, so in the beginning it must
have been the same. Therefore, the protoplasm was the involution of the
highest intelligence. If that intelligence was not present in the
protoplasm, it must have come all of a sudden, something coming out of
nothing, which is absurd. If we look at the law of conservation of
energy and law of conservation of mass we can prove this. Actually that
intelligence must be the Lord of creation, the cause. The sum total of
the intelligence displayed in the universe or the universal intelligence
is what we call God.
25.
All the various forms of cosmic energy, such as matter, thought,
force, intelligence, and so forth are simply the manifestation of that
cosmic intelligence or the Supreme Lord. Every thing that you see, feel
or hear the whole universe is His creation or to be a little more
accurate His projection or to be still more accurate is the Lord
Himself.
26.
We are the makers of our own fate. All the strength and succour
you want is within you. Take the whole responsibility on your shoulders.
The infinite future is before you. If bad thoughts and bad works are
ready to spring upon you like tigers, so also there is the inspiring
hope that the good thoughts and good deeds are ready with the power of a
hundred thousand angels to defend you always and for ever.
27.
The mind is intimately connected with the brain which dies every
time the body changes. The Self is the illuminator, and the mind is the
instrument in Its hands, and through that instrument It gets hold of the
external instrument, and thus comes perception. The external instruments
get hold of the impressions and carry them to the organs. Eyes and ears
are mere receivers; it is the internal organs, the brain centers, which
act. In Sanskrit these centers are called Indriyas, and they carry
sensations to the mind, and the mind presents them further back to
another state of mind i.e. Chitta and there they are organized into will
and all these present them to the King of kings inside, the Self of man.
He then sees and gives His orders. The real Perceiver and the
Manipulator of all this is the Self of man. This Self, being beyond the
little universe of matter and force and thought is imperishable.
28.
In worshipping God we have been always worshipping our own hidden
self.
29.
The worst lie that you ever tell yourself is that you were born a
sinner or a wicked man. He alone is a sinner who sees a sinner in
another man. So the wicked see this universe as a hell and the partially
good see it as heaven while the perfect beings realize it as God
Himself.
30.
Jnana Yoga does not prescribe any code of rituals. This Yoga
appeals to those intellectuals who are rationalistic by nature.
31.
One must have concentration of mind and a burning desire for
attaining liberation. One must cogitate and meditate on this spiritual
knowledge to attain perfection. Brahma (the Supreme Spirit) is
Changeless, Eternal, Infinite and Omnipresent. Brahma is Truth,
Consciousness and Bliss and so is our Self. One is really this
witnessing Self. Through cogitation (manana) along these lines the
qualified aspirant (sadhaka) is able in course of time to grasp the fact
that, detached from gross and fine bodies, he stands aloof as the
Witness, the Supreme Self. He who concentrates on the idea ‘I am the
Witness’ and goes to meditation (nididhyasana), as his concentration
matures, suddenly every thing vanishes from the scene and he finds
himself one with Eternal Spirit. |
