Why should we follow the path of spiritualism?
Follow and feel the difference...says Baaba...read on...
Why do we attend the Upanishad classes? Why are we reading the Upanishads? Is it necessary for us to understand the Upanishads? What is the purpose? Why do we want to attain enlightenment? or liberation? What do you want to attain? Why are we doing all this?
Everyone has his or her own explanations. Nothing is done without a purpose but the explanations have to be right. I cannot explain something to suit my convenience in order to make me understand that whatever I am doing is right. The attempt in our life should always be to analyze whatever we are doing, to bring awareness into you. If you do not bring that awareness into you, if you perform an action without analyzing the awareness, it can go wrong. Is it the mind again which is creating all this analysis, creating the problems? A typical analysis, an absolute analysis.. what is analysis? Let us go deeper into it. Everyone has a capacity to analyze. When you analyze you must have the capacity to remove what is not necessary and accept what is necessary. This process has to continue every moment, not once. Once you read a book, you analyzed it and closed it.. this is not what is implied. Every moment the analysis has to be done just as, before making the final product, the screening is done a number of times, not just once. You have to remove the coarser material and attain the fineness. When can you attain the finest of it? You can attain this only when you remove the finest of the particles from it. This analysis has to continue everyday, every moment in our life, and only then we can understand what we are doing. And it is absolutely necessary to understand what we are doing. Otherwise what is the necessity of our living at all? We must understand what we are doing actually. Before we do we must understand what we are about to do; while doing we should know what we are doing and after we have done we should know what we have done. This analysis is absolutely necessary. Only when this analysis is complete in every moment, those moments are complete for us. Otherwise each moment that we live is incomplete even if one has lived for hundred years. The completeness comes only when the analysis is complete. What is this analysis and how to go about it?
This analysis is the path, which many noblemen explained it as trying to find the truth. The truth is not the past; the truth is not the future; and the truth is not the present. The truth is truth, which is prevalent at all times. The truth has to be understood and analyzed each and every moment. This is called the finding out the truth; we have to live in the truth. When you analyze the truth every moment you live in truth because every moment you reach the truth.
The coarser material has to be removed from our thoughts; the coarser material has to be removed from our understanding. The coarse is that which is rough. Why should we remove the coarse and accept the fine? Why can we not accept the big and reject the small? The fine can reach everywhere; the coarse can only reach till it can go through. The fine can travel anywhere; it can penetrate into anything. We want the penetration into the smallest material also, which would help us to analyze, accept and realize the truth. If we accept the coarser material we cannot travel towards the fine but the fine can travel into the coarse. The coarse cannot travel into the fine. What is fineness? The fineness is flexible; the fineness is beautiful, the fineness is gentle. The fineness is the truth of the coarse; fineness is the result of the coarse, fineness is the abstract from the coarse. Once we extract the fineness from the coarse, the coarse is rejected; the fineness prevails. The coarse existed because the fine was there. If the fine were not present in the coarse, the coarse would not have existed. Hence the knowledge becomes incomplete when the coarse is accepted. When we accept the fine, it can go into finer depths. This is the reason why fine has to be accepted and the coarse rejected.
What is fineness? The mistakes, what we call as mistakes, what we call wrong, what is not right, has to be eliminated each and every moment and only then we can live with the truth. Living in the truth is absolutely necessary. One may ask why should one struggle for all this. Why should we find out the truth every moment? Why can we not live in the coarse? When you live in the coarse you have to accept the coarse. When you accept the coarse, you have to accept the fine as a different form of coarse, a different form of fine. This is adulterated; it is not the truth. When it is not the truth of fine, we identify only the coarse, not the fine which is hidden in the coarse. I identify a fruit as a fruit in the form of a shape, an apple or an orange but I never think of the juice contained in the fruit, due to which the fruit is identified. The fruit cannot be identified if the juice is not there. This is called the acceptance of fineness, the enlightenment. This enlightenment is absolutely necessary for each and everyone to live in this world.
The misconceptions have to be removed and the conceptions accepted. What are to be conceived and what are to be misconceived has to be identified. Various people identify misconception as conception. Which is right? What is right? We do so many things, we read so many books, we understand so many things, we listen to Upanishads and take a decision that it is good. How do you reach the decision that it is good? Even one who talks rubbish says it is good. According to each individual whatever he thinks is good and wise. There are different paths in life. Various people show various paths. This arises due to conflict in understanding the path. If there is no conflict in people’s understanding, there will be just one path. What is enlightenment and which path should be chosen?
Why should we listen to Upanishads? The basic principle is that whatever we do should give us peace and happiness. Before an act, during an act or after an act we may derive pleasure. What is pleasure? People carry a misconception on this. Let us analyze this. Whatever gives pleasure, creates anxiousness, makes you angry, causes disappointments or gives you sadness, is not the right path, including the pleasure. What then is pleasure? The pleasure is a temporary phenomenon projected by the mind for the time being. It may give happiness later, it might not have given pleasure earlier but it gives pleasure at that moment. This is purely temporary and an illusion. Pleasure is connected with many other parameters in our life.
If there was a party tonight, some people would derive pleasure before attending the party; the thought of attending the party itself gives pleasure. This pleasure remains till such time that he attends the party. Once he attends the party, the pleasure of going to the party is not there any more. It was an illusion; he had created this myth; it was nothing but imagination that he would enjoy the party in the evening. He is enjoying the party, is also an imagination. He has enjoyed the party, is equally an imagination. Is it pleasure? It has created anxiety in you. That which creates anxiety can never be a pleasure. You may call it a pleasure; I call it anxiety. The anxiety makes a situation pleasurable; once the anxiety vanishes the pleasure also vanishes. Since morning you might have been full of expectations from the party you would be attending in the evening. The anxiety gives you pleasure and this is absolutely an imagination. Imaginations can go haywire also. When the water sprays from a fountain it looks wonderful and people appreciate it but they do not know that very soon that water would fall down; with anxiousness people wait for the party in the evening without realizing that the pleasure would vanish the moment the anxiety is over.
Pleasure creates anxiety before having the pleasure, after having the pleasure and also expecting another pleasure to take place. Pleasure and happiness are two different things. When you have pleasure you have anxiety; in anxiety the mind stops functioning normally. The mind creates imagination, which means you are not living in the truth. Can we establish that what we experience is pleasure? It is not pleasure; it is anxiety. When you decide to do something, because of your imagination your energy level rises very high and the physical body attains that anxiousness. This leads to high blood pressure; the understanding diminishes. No analysis takes place at that time. You brought awareness and immediately acted upon it without analyzing it. During anxiety analysis cannot take place. Only analysis can reach you to the truth. What is so great about attaining such a pleasure? The anxiety before seeing someone, the anxiety before eating something, we call them all pleasure.
We do not know how to analyze the truth. We listen to people talk rubbish and presume it to be true. Different people follow different paths according to their imagination. Each one tries to establish that the path chosen by him is the right one. For instance, I have chosen the path of Vedic science, the Upanishads and the spiritual development and I try to establish that is the truth. How do we know what we have chosen is right? Why did I choose this path? Is it because of the pleasure that I derive from it? Is it due to the anxiety and unconditional acceptance without analyzing the situation? If I have chosen this path without any analysis it should alternatively give me pleasure and pain. When pleasure alternates with pain, it cannot be a pleasure. If anger is a consequent to any action why should I execute it at all? What gives rise to hatred within you, why should you do that? These are not the right paths; this analysis has to be done immediately. We have to determine the cause and effect at each step. If you analyze the effect and destroy the cause of it, then we reach the truth. The cause and effect is thus nullified. This is how the identity of the truth has to be derived at. We have to derive the truth; we have to analyze the truth. We have to live in the truth and then we can have the right way of living, the peaceful living.
Various paths lead to various results. Each path has a result. If you choose the wrong path you end with a wrong result. The spiritual path has been identified as good because this gives neither pain nor pleasure; it does not give anxiety. It gives understanding; it gives permanent happiness. The understanding in the spirituality never changes but we would like to enjoy the materialistic pleasures, which constantly changes. We cannot depend on that which changes because the truth cannot be determined. Without finding the truth there is no happiness. We do not then follow the right way of living. We have to find the right way of living and then only we are real humans. Everybody may be eating and living but this is not what we want. We must understand the light within us.
A person asked why do you want enlightenment? What will you do with enlightenment? I ask you the same question. What will you do with enlightenment? Are you expecting permanent happiness with enlightenment? When we get enlightenment we will not do anything; it will not be necessary. Doing is an action created by a thought. Thoughts arise out of desires. I WANT HAPPINESS - this is why we are trying to get enlightenment but what will you do with enlightenment? Nothing! Whether you understand me or not will not bother me; whether I should talk or not will also not bother me. That stage comes when the vessel is full and can contain no more water. So long as there is space for even a drop more, we would try to draw even that one drop. This is the human mind. The action of the mind has to be totally seized.
Some people believe that everything is mind. The mind is meant only to do the action. The mind does not know anything. The mind is fed by the thoughts. Thoughts lead to karmas. The mind analyzes each and every thought, converts it to thousands of activities. So mind is not final. If something is final it should contain everything. The mind does not contain everything; it contains only the processing of the thought and performing an action. The mind does not contain knowledge. Mind is not the ultimate; there is something beyond which makes the mind functions. There are people who do not believe that there is a past or a future life and that there is anything beyond the mind at all. Is there any necessity to understand whether there is a back of the body or not? We always see the front of the body. Do we ever remember, are we aware that we have a back also? We are not conscious of it because we are not seeing it everyday. We are unconsciously, sub-consciously aware that there is a back. Since we do not see it everyday we are not bothered whether it looks beautiful or not. We all take care of half of the body. All beauty care is of the front of the body, not for the back. Since you do not see the back you are not bothered. Now you might analyze that we do not even bother about the back of the legs. You know only up to the front; you know only up to the mind. That’s because we are aware only up to the mind. This is because we are not living in the truth. Such people claim that there is nothing beyond the mind. We have to live in the truth. For the sustenance of the front, back is necessary. Beyond the mind there is the self, which we cannot see or understand. We cannot identify but it exists. The mind exists because the self exists. The front cannot exist if the back does not exist. This analysis can be done only by the self and not the mind; otherwise every mind would understand this. Why all minds cannot think what we speak here today? It is because they understand only up to the mind and not beyond. The mind is only an instrument to analyze the information.
We need enlightenment to know what is the mind. Once we know the functions of the mind, we can control the mind. Enlightenment is not the final status. The final status is after getting the enlightenment. The process of meditation is meant to identify the truth. A talk, which gives excitement to others; a talk, which creates doubts in others, a talk that arises hatred for others, a talk that gives agony to others, which misleads others, is all sin. When I am in agony, I talk agony. When I am wrong, I talk wrong. If I mislead you, it is a sin. What are identified are only the body and the actions of the body. One is bothered only about the actions of the body – the indriyas – identifying only the pleasures of the indriyas. If he accepts whatever comes to his mind as happiness, then why should he educate himself? Why are there so many schools, so many inventions? Why are there so many noblemen in this world? We have to think on the other side also. Think it over - why do we attend the Upanishad classes? We have to train the mind. When you are in the midst of this world, which is full of materialistic activities, the mind undergoes training daily on the materialistic pleasures. Knowingly or unknowingly this is what the mind undergoes, which is knows as anxieties. If you do not undergo another training to resist this, at one point of time you would become a wreck. You can think nothing other than this. At one point of time the body becomes inefficient to do any of these things; the mind will not be in a position to function at all.
People are concerned about today and want to enjoy all the pleasures today. They want to live for today and not for tomorrow. These are all proverbs and talked by many people. But when that tomorrow comes, that tomorrow would become today, he does not realize. He has to live not only this day but also when that tomorrow becomes today. Can he then live in that today? Can you assure that in the right way? This is the reason why meditation has been designed and why we should attend the Upanishad classes. The mind is always attracted towards the wrongs. The mind enjoys listening to the wrong and it is easy to mould the mind in the wrong way than the right way. The mind accepts whatever is easily available, so you have to keep a check. Suppose someone offers you a huge sum of money tomorrow. Will you be happy? A sensible person will not be. He immediately starts thinking what could be the intention behind this generosity. A person who lives for today would accept it and enjoy it. He does not realize what problems this money has in store for him.
We train our mind everyday in order to be negative. A conflict from a path is created. When there is a conflict from a path, we start trying to justify that. When we try to justify our actions, we are consciousness that it is wrong. The word itself is ‘justify’. In the court of law, the person who announces the verdict is known as the “Justice”, not a judge. Justice does not identify the person; it identifies the justice that he imparts. If his verdict does not create justice, he is no more a Justice. His version should be justified. It is a noun, not a name actually; it is not a designation. Justification itself implies that there is something there to be justified. The right need not be justified. This is the reason why the noblemen never argue or try to justify anything. Others will compare and always try to prove that spiritualism is wrong. A man in the spiritual path would never try to prove that others are wrong. No justification; justification comes only when I know it is wrong. Why should I try to justify that Upanishads are right? Even the thought does not occur.
We have to train the mind in order to be in the truth. Each individual has to develop himself, not by any words or anyone’s talks, nor through books. He has to find out the truth; he has to analyze it at every step. He has to live in the truth every moment. Then he is a sanyaasi. The analysis has to continue every moment. When you live in truth alone, at one point of time no more analysis is required. When you start travelling in the truth, you travel towards the truth only. When no more analysis is required you should understand that you have reached the enlightenment. After enlightenment no more thinking, no more analysis. These all are tools to lead us to the right path. If we do not use these tools the negative tools would take over and you move away from the truth. To keep you in the truth every moment, this training is required. When you keep on listening to negative talks, ideas and problems, automatically after some time you start believing and following them. The conscious and the sub-conscious mind are very easily attracted to them and we understand it better. Constant listening to the scriptures, noble talks and the noblemen keeps us on our toes always and any negative thought can be immediately wiped out.
The noblemen say that there is darkness within us, which has to be eliminated. The light within is overpowered by the darkness. It is the darkness of misconception. Thoughts, which give rise to anger, anxiety or even pleasure, are not right. Thoughts devoid of these give us happiness. We have to attain that happiness, the total happiness. People misconstrue pleasure as happiness. In English language we cannot explain it in a better way. It is like the difference between tripthi and samptripthi. Pleasure is tripthi and happiness is samptripthi. The world is confused because of the inefficiency of the language. In Sanskrit the same thing can be explained in just two words.
Because of their own confused state, people slide back even after spending twenty or twenty – five years studying scriptures under the guidance of the holy men. They try to justify that even though they know spiritualism, they have understood the subject and the scriptures but then realized that that was not the right way of life. Overnight they become frustrated because they never really understood spiritualism. That Guru under whose guidance such people slide back never speaks a word against the disciples but the person who comes down propagates that spiritualism is not the path to be followed. In other words, the Guru remains the same even after spending so many years in his company whereas he has changed for the worse. They justify what they speak is right. Even listening to such people is a sin. Due to their own frustrated state they in turn try to confuse people saying that materialism is happiness and there is nothing beyond this. There is no self, no aathman; nothing called spirit or self-realization. A layman would argue to be physically shown the aathman and the Paramaathman. This is due to ignorance. On the other hand when people promise them pleasure out of an alcoholic drink, they are sure of it because they can actually feel the intoxication. Which is the truth? A layman would always believe in what he can feel; that is the truth for him. He does not know the consequences of drinking; the pleasure and anxiety is only till such time that he takes a drink, till he gets intoxicated.
Why do we listen to the same Upanishads day after day? In every Upanishads the same principles are explained in a different manner to make different people understand in different ways. This is so that the mind should be eliminated. The process of elimination should reach us to ONE. If the mind analyzes the same thing and derives the same result each time, then the mind is eliminated and no more analysis required.
Why should we try to analyze and discriminate between the right and the wrong? People preach different theories and concepts and each of them expects his path to be accepted. All this leads to conflict in the mind due to the ideas and the ideals. We have to understand that which has no conflict. If the mind understands that there is no conflict in something, the mind is eliminated. If the mind stops analyzing there is spiritualism, that there is only materialism, the mind becomes peaceful for sometime. Does it become completely silent? It keeps on trying to derive pleasure one after another; you are not stable.
When people grow old they love to endlessly narrate all their activities and experiences of the past. This means they remain attached to it and that they are also disappointed that they cannot do it now. He is also unsure of the future. They keep repeating that even if they die it would not matter. But in reality it does matter, which is why he keeps repeating that it does not matter. In doing so he is expressing his agony and disappointment. A sanyasi or a swamiji has derived more pleasures, more happiness and more knowledge today than when he just started meditation. A man in the spiritual path steadfastly moves ahead in his path; when he is at the top he can look back and see where he started. In materialism the curve is entirely different. There are only regrets of the past fame, wealth and the pleasures. It is such people who preach against spiritualism.
Even in the small way that we are trying to grow and help grow spiritually, when we analyze we do find a difference in ourselves. We realize our past weaknesses and the present strengths. We used to turn to God for help for every little thing. You know what is God? After meditation when we slowly progress, each time that we try to attain God through meditation or through chanting and each time that we reach the end, He says, ‘GO aheaD’. Next meditation, again ‘GO aheaD’. Self – realization, ‘GO aheaD’. So long as you exist he says, ‘GO aheaD’; when you do not exist, there is no going ahead. ‘You’ remains as long as ‘I’ remains. When you join with him there is no You.
SHAMBHO MAHADEVA!
OM SHANTHI SHANTHI SHANTIHI