Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

1. A Secret of Meditation

(Darshan given on January 3rd, 1999)

Swamiji: The world is not outside the soul, and the soul is not outside the world. Generally we think the soul is inside, so let the world go to hell. And God – where is God? He is above the world. If He is above the world, this world has no meaning. He will renounce the whole thing.

God has created the world out of Himself. Because He had no brick and mortar to create the world, no cement, no material, so naturally it must be an emanation of Himself. How would you renounce the world, which is renouncing God Himself in one way? You are a father of a son and a judge in a court, so which is the correct position of yours? So God can appear as the transcendent Absolute, or It can appear as this world also.

You are doing pujas, mantras, temple bells are ringing, and all that. Let them go on. There is no objection. In what way are you related to God Almighty? In what way are you connected to the world outside? Is the world inside you, or is the world outside you? One may say, “I am inside the world.” Then the world becomes outside. How can a thing that is totally outside you be related to you in any way? The word 'outside' cuts off the connection of that which is outside with your own self.

Is it really outside, or is there any vital connection between the world and yourself? Every minute the world is impinging upon us, and it tells us, “I am here.” A thing that is totally cut off from you as an outsider will not impinge upon you. This body is made up of the same stuff as the stuff of the world. The brick and mortar of this body is the same brick and mortar of the world. This physical body is made up of earth principle and water principle and heat and air and space. What is there in this body except these five elements? This hard stuff is the physical element. There is water principle inside, there is air, there is space. What do you find outside in the world? The same. If the substance of the world and the substance of the individual are the same, what makes anyone imagine that there is a difference between oneself and the world? This is to enter into philosophical jargons, which is a very deep subject, into which Sankara, Ramanuja and all great thinkers probed, and no answer came finally.

The world does not exist outside you. All the problems of life can be solved by the acceptance of the fact that the world is not outside you. Then the world is neither your friend nor your enemy. It is yourself. You are the world.

For a few minutes you close the eyes: “There is no distance between me and the world. The idea of distance arises due to space between me and the world. But the space is one of the items of the constitution of the body and the world, so it cannot create distinction. That which is inside me as the spatial component is also in the outside world. There cannot be a distance between me and the world because what creates distance apparently, which is space, is the very substance of me and the whole world.” Now you close your eyes and meditate. I am telling you a secret of meditation: “If the distance between me and the world is apparent, a kind of illusion – it is not really there – then it is a perceptional defect. That difficulty that we feel in not being able to know the relevance of ourselves with the world is due to some wrong perception. I am the world.”

You are a citizen of India. What do you lose if you say, “I am a citizen of the whole world”? What is the harm? A citizen of a country is protected by the laws of the country. A citizen of the world will be protected by the whole world. A citizen of the whole universe will be protected by the whole universe. The gods in heaven, whom we are speaking of many times, are the administrators of the universe. Just as we have got administrators, caretakers of law, in a government, there are caretakers of the universal law, whom we call gods – Indra, Varuna, and all those. Just as government officers protect the citizens by handling the law properly, the gods will help you.

The eyes are operating because of the sun superintending over the eyes. I don't know if you have heard of these things. The sun's rays are operating through the eyes. And, similarly, are the ears, the tongue, the hands and the feet. No limb will move without the operation of these external divinities. You are not only a world citizen, you are the world. How happy you will feel at that time! “Oh, I am the world myself. Now what is it that I want?” There is no question of wanting. You are the very thing that you are wanting. You will be shocked. “I am the very thing that I have been asking for. I am the very thing that I want. I have become the very thing that I have been searching for. Then what will happen? There will be a shaking of personality. There will be a tremor. The pranas will jump in ecstasy: I have got everything because I am the thing that I want.

“The whole universe is I.” Then the universal forces will become your servants. You have rejected them, thinking that you are independent: I belong to Delhi, I belong to this place, I belong to that place. Why don't you say, “I am a citizen of the whole world”? What is the dearth of speech also? You may be poor in finance and land, but are you poor in speech also? Why not utter some good word? “I belong to the whole cosmos. I have come from it. When God created the world, He created me also, so how do I stand outside? This universe is the body of God. Therefore, it looks like an outside object. And I was created together with the world. So where am I now? I am not on the surface of the earth. There is no such thing as the earth. It is part of the universe. So I am in the universe. I am the universe.” This is called meditation.