The Heart Of The Spiritual Problem Sri Swami Chidananda What is the heart of the spiritual problem of the individual soul upon this earth plane, who is in a state of bondage to an earth consciousness, a limited individual consciousness which is referred to as jivahood? It is important to try to understand or to get to the essence of this metaphysical problem, this cosmic problem of the individual soul imprisoned in a structure made of flesh and bones, in a labyrinth, a net, of constant, unceasing thoughts, fancies, imaginations, memories and projections into the future. These constitute an inner mesh or net in which we are caught and held firmly, for the identification with the psycho-physical dimensions of our personality is so total, so complete, that it has become normal. It has become the one and only consciousness that we know. It has become our natural condition although Vedantic psychology would describe it as abnormal. It is an aberration. Thus, Swami Vivekananda, trying to make his Western audience understand this subtle, inner metaphysical point a hundred years ago used the term “dehypnotise.” When they suggested that Vedantic affirmations such as “I am Atman, I am immortal, I am without birth and death, name or form,” were only a form of self-hypnosis, he replied: “On the contrary, you have been hypnotised into thinking I am the body, I am a human being, I am so and so, I belong to this family, to this country.” What Vedanta wants to do is to dehypnotise you from the hypnotised condition you have fallen into through birth after birth of wrong thinking.” Thus it is that we have to go through a process of trying to discover what it is into which we have landed through ages of wrong thinking. That state Vedanta pinpoints as a state of identification with that which we are not, a total moving away from the centre of our real, natural awareness of what we are. Moving away, completely forgetting and becoming disconnected, as it were, from the awareness or from the consciousness of what we really and truly are, we have entered into a state of consciousness identifying ourselves and thinking ourselves to be something which we are not. We are immortal Spirit, but we think we are people subject to birth and death, a beginning and an end, a birth day and an epitaph. So, Vedanta precisely pinpoints our situation as this state of forgetfulness of our real nature and being totally caught up, entangled and overcome by a wrong awareness, an identification with a personality consciousness which is not our real consciousness. Out of this wrong identification has arisen a false ego-sense, and we are held in bondage to this wrong, vitiated consciousness dominated by ego and totally pervaded by selfishness which is the outcome of ego and which leads to a self-centred, self-seeking life. This is the present malady. And, this condition seems to be our real, natural condition, whereas it is a diseased one. It is called bhava-roga (disease of transmigration). The bondage of earth life is not outside you. It is not made up of anything other than your own self. It is not the outer world perceived by the five senses that constitutes prapancha or samsara or earth life. It is this inner state of becoming completely deprived of our true awareness and becoming enslaved by a wrong consciousness dominated by a false ego and further complicated by selfishness that is the natural immediate outcome of the ego and its attachments to so many things. It is this wrong awareness of ourselves, this self-centred, self-seeking life that is the root cause of all clash and conflict with others, differences of opinion, disharmony, discord, prejudice, bias, hatred, misunderstanding, envy, jealousy, suspicion and anger. Everything stems from this basic state which constitutes your bhava-roga. Bhava-roga is not outside, it is inside. Samsara or prapancha or bandhana (binding) are not outside, they are inside. Therefore, the first process is to somehow or other clearly perceive this. Because, as long as you do not clearly perceive this and honestly accept this state of yours, kaivalya moksha, liberation and illumination are all far, far away. They are only so much of fancy. They are only a vapour of imagination. We must clearly perceive this state, and we must be honest enough to admit this very painful truth about the actual inner state of our consciousness. It is not at all flattering, but unless there is honesty about oneself we cannot step into spiritual life even if we know all about Vedanta. For the spiritual life has two dimensions. One is the Vedanta siddhanta (doctrine) of the ultimate experience, but the other is vyavahara (worldly activity). Unless Vedanta is brought over into vyavahara, it is only a burden to us. Siddhanta is useless unless it is brought down to the level of abhyasa (practice), and takes the form of sadhana in day-to-day living—in your everyday activity, thinking and feeling, reaction to things around you, and your relationship with others with whom you have to live. These have been provided by God Himself for the jivatma as a field of sadhana so that siddhanta can be applied, so that one may begin to move towards Truth-experience, Reality-consciousness. Unless we understand our position in samsara to be thus, unless we see it as a gymnasium in which to exercise and strengthen our inner spiritual sinews and muscles, we are the losers. We shall ever be in a wonderful field, yet we will not be able to take advantage of it, because we will be thinking that sadhana is somewhere in a forest or inside a cave. It is inside a cave, but the cave is inside us. We must see very clearly that it is here, it is now, it is in this way that I have to evolve. There is not going to be another opportunity given. If we fail to recognise and bypass the opportunity that God has given, then we are losers. Every moment, every day that dawns is a great, golden chance and opportunity given. The field is immediately reopened afresh for you to exercise practical Vedanta, for you to put siddhanta into abhyasa. This constitutes practical

A Pointing Finger Sri Swami Chidananda Worshipful homage to the eternal, Universal Spirit Divine, that Worshipful Cosmic Being who is our source, origin, support and strength, fulfilment and goal-ultimate. May His divine grace be upon you all! Loving adorations to our revered and beloved holy Master Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj in whose spiritual presence we are all assembled in this early morning spiritual fellowship in this Samadhi Hall of his holy Ashram on the banks of divine Mother Ganga. May his glance of grace, Gurukripa and his hand of benediction be upon you all sincere seeking souls. The bell rings and reminds by marking the arrival of a certain time for some specific purpose that time does not stand still, it passes. Therefore, beloved Sadhaks and Seekers, Jijnasus and Mumukshus, even as time is ever moving, we have to keep pace with it and also keep moving. Movement is the great law of evolution, nature. Movement is the secret of success. Movement is the one condition of progress. But movement does not merely mean motion. There may be continuous, unbroken motion without any movement. Movement in time and space indicates or symbolises a certain progression. Motion can be round and round and round, and it may be involved in a single location. It may be in the same place, take you nowhere as you say. Upward movement and forward movement, Godward movement, movement upon the path of evolution which constitutes the essence of evolution and progress, does not occur by itself. And this movement has to be initiated, maintained, directed and it has to be safeguarded also. Movement can come to an abrupt stop but it need not necessarily be of the same rate because there are ups and downs in life. All things do not remain the same, all conditions do not remain the same. A person keeps moving forward and a pace is of a certain rate, but it is buffeted by strong winds in the opposite direction. One has to struggle against the winds and the movement is naturally slowed down. As we had occasion to mention when your movement is in the direction of the flow of a stream or a river, the movement requires no special effort and it is rapid. But when you have to move against the stream and you have to swim against the current, then naturally the movement will be slower because it has to overcome opposition, overcome a contrary current. This is to be expected because we are in a world of diversity. Just as these facts are true about the outer physical universe of ours, they are also, to some extent, true about your inner psychological and spiritual universe within. Movements, progression in spiritual life means progress of our entire being, of our mind, our emotions, our sentiments, our thoughts, the quality of our thoughts, the direction of our thoughts, the motivations of our thoughts. They are all involved in contributing to the correctness, the rightness, wisdom of any inner movement of your real inner being, your vital being. Even so your higher vital being, the intelligence, the reason dictates, if it is clouded, if it is overcome by strong emotion, passion, sentiment, the reason may start working in a topsy-turvy way justifying that which is not to be justified, supporting that which is not to be supported. Then you create your own spiritual problem, you create your own spiritual situation, problematic situation, complicated situation. There should be a harmony between the higher vital being and the vital being upon the mental level of thoughts, emotions, sentiments, imaginations, memories. There should be harmony—that which harmonises the outer physical manifestations of these inner movements and the inner movements upon the vital mental level and the inner movements upon the higher vital, intellectual level. That which harmonises is your ideal and goal, your philosophy of life, your principles of life, and the living of your life, the principle of your conduct and character. We live by certain principles. We abide by certain time-honoured truths expounded in our scriptures. We live by certain goals and ideals and they have the power and efficacy, effectiveness of bringing about a unification, a harmony, a oneness in all levels of our being. Therein lies the importance of these factors, principles for living, and ideal for life and well-conceived goal for our day-to-day living of our life, our thoughts, words, emotions, moods, motivations, sentiments, actions. The harmony, the unification, integration of your personality depend upon your unified ideal and goal, your principles and your philosophy of life. You must be very very clear about what is ‘plus’ for you and what is ‘minus’ for you. And the source of our wisdom, the material for our deciding, choosing, selecting, rejecting and deciding is our heritage of wisdom we have inherited from our past. Saints, Sages, mystics, men of wisdom have not come and gone in vain. They have left something for posterity and that is our inheritance, our asset, our wealth. Their advent, their life, and even the manner of their passing is for us a permanent endowment, a light upon the path, a pointing finger, a certain directing ideal. If this background is recognised for its value and from time to time you compare your life with the ideals handed down to you, then you have a safe term of reference by which you can direct this movement forward towards the chosen goal which Spiritual Life constitutes both upon the outer plane as well as the vital plane of the mind and the higher vital plane of your reasoning, knowledge, intellect, Buddhi. Ideals co-ordinate them and harmonise them. Certain unswerving eternal principles, values—co-ordinate them, bring about a harmony in them. They integrate them, giving them great force and a shining idea! placed before you always. It becomes of extreme help in times of an inner conflict between the vital and the higher vital, between the wisdom of reason and the waywardness of the mind. In resolving

Practice of Meditation Sri Swami Sivananda Meditation is doubtless difficult. It will be very difficult, nay indeed impossible for a beginner to take to subtle meditation all at once. There must be graduated practices and the mind must be rendered very subtle for higher practices of concentration and meditation. Just as the archer first aims at gross things, target, etc., and then takes to subtle points, so also the student of Yoga should do gross concentration to start with and then take to subtle concentration practices. There must be gradual ascent in the successive stages of Yoga. But, Yoga Bhrashtas like Jnana Deva or Sadasiva Brahman of Karur, Trichinopoly, Trilinga Swami and others can at once take to higher stages. Such persons are very, very rare indeed. The object of meditation in the beginning must be Personal God, the body of Virat, or the four-armed Maha Vishnu, or the flute-bearer Lord Krishna or Rama or any other object. Later on, meditation can be practised on Impersonal God. In Savitarka meditation you will have a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the objects, their excellence and defects, all the features, present, past and future, and also those near and remote, even those unheard of or unthought of. The whole knowledge of the objects and elements will be revealed to you. The name Sampatti is given to the four experiences collectively, Savitarka, Savichara, Sananda and Asmita. Sasmita Samadhi culminates in Dharmamega Samadhi. Then comes absolute dispassion for him. This brings him Asamprajnata Samadhi. Why do you read many books? It is of no use. The great book is within your heart. Open the pages of this inexhaustible book, the Source for all knowledge. You will know everything. What is that knowledge of Brahman or the Source or Self? Close your eyes. Withdraw the senses. Merge deep in the Supreme Soul, the Light of lights, the Sun of suns. Complete knowledge will be revealed to you. You will have direct intuitional knowledge and divine wisdom by direct perception. All doubts will vanish now. All mental torments will disappear. All hot discussions, heated debates will terminate. Forget the body. Forget the surroundings. Forget friends and relatives. Forgetting these is the highest Sadhana. It helps meditation a great deal. By remembering God you can forget all these things. Merge within by practising deep, silent meditation. Taste the spiritual consciousness by withdrawing the mind from the sensual objects and fixing it on the object of meditation. This will lead you to Samadhi, the highest goal of Yogis. You will have to note carefully whether you remain stationary in the spiritual path even after many years of meditation or whether you are progressing. Sometimes you may even retrograde or fall downwards also if you are not vigilant and careful, if your Vairagya wanes and if you are slack in meditation. Reaction may set in. Some practise meditation for a period of 15 years and yet they have not made any spiritual progress. Why? This is due to the lack of earnestness, Vairagya, keen longing for liberation and intense constant Sadhana. Just as water leaks out into the rat holes in the agricultural fields, so also energy is wasted in wrong channels through Raga and undercurrent, lurking, subtle desire. Suppressed desires also will manifest and harass you. Unconsciously you will become a victim to those desires. When you advance in the spiritual practice, it will be very difficult for you to do both meditation and office work at the same time daily because the mind will undergo a double strain. It works in different grooves and channels with different Samskaras during Dhyana. It find it to adjust itself to different kinds of uncongenial activity, as soon as it comes down from a higher plane of sublime thinking. The mind has to move in a diametrically opposite direction. It gropes in the darkness. It gets bewildered, confused and puzzled. You might have noticed how the mind gets puzzled even in ordinary daily affairs of life when you go to a new place in matters of food, bath, rest and answering the calls of nature. When you again sit for meditation in the evening you will have to struggle hard to wipe out the new worldly Sarnskaras you have gathered during the course of the day, and to get a calm, one-pointed mind again. This struggle, sometimes, brings on headache. The Prana which moves inwards in different grooves and channels during worldly activities becomes very gross during work. During meditation the Prana is taken up to the head. Serve. Love. Meditate. Realise.

The Difficulty of Progress in Sadhana Swami Sivananda The workings of Maya are very extremely subtle, so very difficult to overcome and human nature is fundamentally so Asuric and unregenerate that real spiritual development and progress in Sadhana are indeed very hard to obtain. To achieve success in any measure in the spiritual life is the most difficult and an up-hill task that truly it is Divine Grace alone that can raise the aspirant from darkness to Light. So vehement, self-assertive and rebellious is the egoistic self of man that it refuses to be changed from its vicious state to a state of virtue, goodness and saintliness. It is a great blunder to think that the mere act of renunciation is sufficient achievement in spiritual life. If renunciation makes you feel that you have at once become quite superior to the rest of mankind and has bestowed on you the right to preach and to dictate to others, then the very purpose of renunciation gets blasted. You destroy the very foundation of spiritual life by this egoistic assumption. The eradication of egoism in all its numerous aggressive forms comprises the very core of spirituality and all spiritual Sadhana. Right from the very beginning of your spiritual life, you must understand clearly that in true humility, sincere desire to root out gradually pride, egoism and jealousy, earnest and unceasing introspection to find out one’s own defects and improve oneself lies your hope of progress. Without this basis, any Sadhana becomes a delusion and waste. It makes the aspirant puffed up, more proud and egoistic. When this happens, all good advices and instructions fall flat upon him. Higher influences cease to have any effect as the aspirant becomes deliberately and obstinately non-respective to them. Eternal vigilance should be exercised by every aspirant if he is to avoid falling into this dangerous state. Spiritual life is not a light matter. To grow in Yoga is not an easy joke. Sadhakas must take to the path sincerely. Always feel that you are just a beginner and strive diligently to acquire the primary virtues of kindness, charitability, patience, forbearance. With boldness, manliness and self-reliance, combine humility, softness of speech and behaviour and self-denial. Be ready to serve others and put up with provocation and abuse without retaliation. Remove all harshness and rudeness from your nature. Courtesy and politeness must become part of your very nature. Then alone the hardened heart gets softened and good sentiments and spiritual emotions arise in it. Concentration, meditation and Samadhi are still far from him who has not purified himself and got rid of his evil traits. Sinning and evil has become so much a habit with man that he never feels that he is committing them even though day and night he is doing so constantly. And the greatest harm is done by the fact that even while in this unregenerate state, the aspirant becomes deluded by Maya into thinking that he has already progressed considerably in spirituality. He deceives himself with the thought that as far as he is concerned he is pretty advanced in Sadhana. He thinks he has acquired that Nirlipta (unattached) attitude where he can commit any sort of act and yet remain unaffected by it. This self-deception puts a bar to all progress. Under this grave delusion he allows himself to be unrestrained and runs wild, intolerant of criticism, resentful of the least opposition, utterly disregardful of others feelings and absolutely unamenable to advice and correction. All senses of discrimination, sane judgment and introspection vanish from him. Even the common courtesy and culture possessed by an ordinary worldly man take leave of the aspirant on account of his presumption of spiritual advancement and growth of wisdom. He becomes disposed to attack even venerable and elderly persons and spiritually superior souls. O aspirants! Beware of these dangers in your spiritual life. Be vigilant always. Always regard yourself as a beginner just commencing Sadhana. Never underestimate the importance of Yama, Niyama, of ethical culture and Sadhana-Chatushtaya. They are everything. Japa, Kirtan, Svadhyaya, Upasana should all be done side by side with this ethical training and character-building. Without the latter, Sadhana becomes fruitless as filling a vessel which is full of holes in the bottom. Without the eager and earnest desire to obey the Guru and improve oneself, without service, humility, sincerity, simplicity and eagerness to learn and improve oneself, Sadhana is useless like rowing a boat which is firmly anchored to the river-bed or like sowing seeds upon the rock. Spirituality means growing into the form of the Divine Ideal. It is the transformation of your nature from the human to the Divine. You can hope to achieve perfection only when you effect this transformation. It is purification and change of heart alone that makes Dharana and Dhyana possible. To grow in Sattva, you must entirely destroy the Asuric side of your nature. Never imagine for a moment that you are anywhere near the Goal unless and until you strive with earnestness and diligence to rid yourself of evil tendencies, get established in a pure Sattvic ethical character. Remember this point clearly. Constantly reflect upon this. Meditate upon this. Know what true spirituality is. Fully realise the importance of becoming a changed man ethically and morally, before you can claim to be a Sadhaka. Carefully avoid the dangers of self-deception by constant vigilance and introspection. Do Sadhana regularly and pray for His grace. Imagine not that you have scaled the heights of spirituality. Patiently wait for the result. When your nature is changed, purified and prepared, Grace will flow down of itself, illumination will flash by itself, in the firmament of your pure heart. Bliss and Ananda will spontaneously flow in and fill you when you have emptied yourself of all harshness, egoism, pride and passion. Perfection and Immortality will be yours. Where there is kindness, humility and purity, there spirituality springs up, saintliness shines, divinity descends and perfection manifests itself.