Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1996

by Swami Krishnananda

37. Meditation on God

(Darshan given on June 14th, 1996.)

A visitor: I want to learn meditation without religion.

Swamiji: Do you believe in God?

Visitor: Yes.

Swamiji: What is your concept of God?

Visitor: I think of God as the creator of the world.

Swamiji: If God created this whole universe, He must be so much bigger than His creation. He must be omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. Now, number one, go on telling this to the mind: There is a creator who is larger than the universe, more powerful than the universe.

Secondly, where is God? The universe is everywhere; wherever you go, you see the universe. The creator also, therefore, must be everywhere. This is a logical argument: If the effect that He has produced is everywhere, the cause also has to be everywhere.

So, number one, God is the greatest thing, nothing equal to Him. When you contact Him, you have got everything; there is nothing more that you want. Number two, He is everywhere; therefore, you need not run about from place to place to contact Him. To contact a thing that is everywhere, you can just sit anywhere and pull the switch of the heart.

Number three, you must have time to go on thinking like this. You should not be running about in so many places with no time to sit for a few minutes. I am not telling you any complicated method of meditation. For your spiritual benefit, I am introducing you to this concept of the Almighty Lord.

You also belong to some religion. You are Jewish, and it is a good religion. Concentrate your mind on this principle of the universality and all-pervading nature of that Cosmic Creator who is everywhere, inside and outside, flooding and inundating you, touching and feeling you. You are being in contact with Him perpetually, provided that your heart is open to it.

Can you have a feeling of this kind in your heart again and again? The more time you devote to it, the better for you. If your intention is only contact with God in meditation, this little thing is sufficient for you.

Another visitor: In the mind of many Christians, there is the idea of original sin.

Swamiji: Who has committed the sin?

Visitor: Because of duality between good and evil, there is a sin.

Swamiji: Seeing duality is not a sin. Everybody is seeing duality in the world.

Visitor: But the sin belongs to the evil.

Swamiji: Where is the evil sitting?

Visitor: In the mind.

Swamiji: Whose mind?

Visitor: My mind.

Swamiji: Who created the evil in the mind?

Visitor: Always me. It comes from our education.

Swamiji: How did the evil come into the mind? From where has it come? It has to exist somewhere, in order that it could enter the mind. Where does it exist?

Visitor: I am asking you where it has come from.

Swamiji: I have never said that there is evil. You yourself are unnecessarily creating a problem. Evil cannot be there unless it has some place to exist. It cannot be the mind because it has entered the mind from somewhere. But where is that place?

This is a confusion of thought, so it is not good to go on thinking like that. This concept of original sin is a totally illogical concept. It has no foundation. Somebody has thrust it into your mind, and you are going on thinking about it. This is called religious brainwashing. You will become whatever you think you are, so if you think you are evil, you will get nothing out of it. But if you think you are pure, a ray of God, you will be blessed. You will become exactly as you are thinking.

Another visitor: Does free will exist?

Swamiji: Free will appears as if it is existing when the central will is operating through the ego of the human being. It appears to be existing because the egoism is appropriating it to itself. Really it is the cosmic will that is operating, but nobody will believe it because of the egoism.

Visitor: There was a sentence in your book: “Your free will is only to the extent you are united with the Total.”

Swamiji: When you are united with the Absolute, you are totally free. Now the feeling of free will is illusory; it is not real. You are not united with the universal will. You are united with the ego only; therefore, that egoistic free will is illusory. The real free will is union with the Absolute. There you are completely free. Nobody can control you afterwards.

Visitor: Free will means freedom to choose?

Swamiji: Freedom to do whatever you like. That can be done only when you are one with the Absolute. Until that time, it is only an illusory sense of freedom caused by the sense of egoism.

Visitor: In your book you said, “What about that friend's mind who also saw a friend in the dream? Do you think he has no mind, or he may be dreaming that you are dreaming him?” Why did you say that?

Swamiji: It looks as if he has a mind. Your friend in the dream also has a mind; otherwise, how will he speak to you? But actually, it is only your mind operating, though it looks as if there is another mind. Similarly, it is here, also. It is the Cosmic Mind thinking, though it looks as if each individual has an independent mind. In the same way as one mind looks like many minds in the dream, here also, one mind looks like many minds.

Visitor: So Swamiji, there is just one dream.

Swamiji: It is a cosmic dream. What you call waking life is a cosmic dream where the cosmic thought operates through every individual, and it appears as if every individual has his own independent mind. In the dream, also, you will find the same thing. The people whom you see in the dream are appearing to have their own minds; otherwise, how will you contact and talk with them? Their minds are illusory minds projected by your own personal mind. You have projected them. They don't exist really, yet it appears as if they are existing and that they have a mind also. You talk to them, have relationships with them; you have created a big drama there in the dream. That is exactly what is happening in waking life, also.

Another visitor: How do I know if I have done my best?

Swamiji: Your conscience will tell you. You are not a dull-wit. You can understand. Have you done your best? If you have done it reluctantly in a disinterested manner, then, of course, you have not done your best. But if your heart and soul are put into it in the best possible way, then you cannot go beyond that. No one can do more than their best. 'Best' is superlative. But if you have not done your best, and feel that you could have done it better, then, of course, you are responsible for it. If you have put your heart and soul into it, then you are not responsible. No man can work as God. Man can work as man only. If from within that capacity you have done your best, further responsibility is not yours.

Everybody has reason; nobody is without it. If you apply your reason, you will know where you stand. Also, there is something called conscience. Conscience is your guide. Nobody can thrust wisdom into your head. It has to come from inside only.

Another visitor: Is it true that all actions in the world originate from the will of God?

Swamiji: It is both true and not true because as long as you feel that it is not true, it is not true. Even if it is true, you are not going to be benefited by that because your heart is not accepting it. If you felt that God does everything, you would not speak to me at all. You would keep quiet. Everything would be fine.

Visitor: I kept quiet for two days, sir, and today I am leaving.

Swamiji: The third day it has become false. You tell God, “For two days I waited for You, and the third day I don't agree with You.”

Everything is done by the will of God in a perfect manner. The whole cosmos is the body of God. Just as your body is a manifestation of your soul, the entire universe is a manifestation of the Almighty Absolute consciousness; therefore, nothing can move without the central will operating. You cannot lift your finger, a hair cannot grow on your body, you cannot say anything, your breathing will stop, your heart cannot function, unless that will is there.

But – and the 'but' is the important thing – no individual in the world may feel that this is so. You said that you have come from Delhi; you didn't say that God has come. The consciousness that you are a human being immediately creates other associations such as being a man or woman, doing this action, that action, etc. How can these ideas arise in the mind of a person when no such action is really taking place, and the whole universe is acting simultaneously? So, it is incomplete knowledge of the total comprehension of the cosmos that makes us feel that we are doing the action. If your mind is able to switch itself on to the cosmic setup, you will have no problem afterwards.

Visitor: If every action is the will of God directly or indirectly, and therefore manifests itself, then that doesn't leave any room for free will of man.

Swamiji: Ultimately, what you call free will is nothing but the will of God operating.

Visitor: So how can you blame someone for his past samskaras?

Swamiji: He feels that he has done it. If you ask him, he will say that it is his cow, his land, his property. Is there anybody who will say that this building belongs to God? We are bound and we are free in accordance with the feeling that we have got in our hearts. If you say that you have done it, then you bear the consequences. But who will say that he has not done it? Every person who has body consciousness will feel that he has done it.

Your actions and your very existence are included in the cosmic action, so whatever you do is part of that. But don't make the mistake of bringing your consciousness separately, as if you are doing it.

Visitor: But it affects me.

Swamiji: It affects you because your practical life is different from what you are saying with your mind.

Visitor: I can't help it.

Swamiji: Then there is no use of discussion. You should not talk on this subject, because practically it doesn't affect you. God cannot help you unless you believe in God entirely – not fifty percent.

You have to go slowly, step by step, by detachment, unselfishness, charitableness, non-interference, by goodness of feeling in your heart, and very ideal behaviour. That is the beginning of good conduct and the first step towards God. Then, afterwards, do a little contemplation and prayer on these things that we have been discussing. Later on, actual meditation will start. God will take care of you.

Visitor: If the aim of man is to realise God and finally be liberated, how does he explain this whole exercise – the cycle, the predestination of man?

Swamiji: The whole thing that you have mentioned is included in the cosmic setup, as all the waves and all the bubbles and ripples in the ocean are included in the ocean. You will find everything included in That, and you will not put a question afterwards. You will be merged in That, so who will put the question?