Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1996

by Swami Krishnananda

47. Everything is Consciousness

(Darshan given on October 19th, 1996.)

A visitor: This building is made of consciousness.

Swamiji: I agree. This building is made of consciousness, it is not made of bricks. Bricks do not exist. There are no such things as bricks. There is no such thing as anything except the flood of consciousness which looks like persons, things, trees, bank balance, America, India, man, woman, this, that. They are all a dramatic pageantry presented in the theatre of the cosmos by the great director, which is consciousness, which is also the audience of the drama. The theatre is made of consciousness, the audience is made of consciousness, the actors also are consciousness. So what do you say? The actors, the theatre and the audience are all consciousness. Can you make out any sense of it? If you can make any sense out of it, then you shall have no problem in your life. If you cannot make any sense out of it, it is high time that you try to make sense out of it. These are all serious matters. Your destiny is in your hand. You should not sleep over these things.

All our ideas are nonsense finally because we are looking at things through a wrong instrument, and so it gives us a wrong picture. This is a matter which requires great meditation. The only duty in life is meditation, and all other great busy activities in which you are engaged are wrongly conceived as totally different from meditation. You are thinking that meditation is one thing, work and activity are another thing, and engagement in the world of business is a third thing. Nothing of the kind. All these things – factory, business, railway station, bus stand, and all your activities, everything – is a tremendous wave of the ocean of consciousness which includes yourself and myself, everybody and everything. If you can meditate on this vast ocean of consciousness which is dashing through its waves in all the forms of the persons seated here and all the things that you can conceive, you will simply melt into the liquid of the Absolute.

Another visitor: In your book on the Bhagavadgita, you write that Om is not just a symbol but the thing itself, so that it is universal being or limitless being.

Swamiji: Is your name identical with you are not?

Visitor: Yes.

Swamiji: Your name is not what you are because that name has no meaning if other people are not there in the world. So the name is not necessary. You shed the name, and shed the form also, and see what comes afterwards.

Another visitor: I want to make everybody happy.

Swamiji: In what manner can you satisfy God's ordinance? Now we are satisfying human ordinance. You want to make everybody happy by your good nature and service. Let millions and millions of people be happy due to your wonderful work, but the Creator also should be happy. Your heart will tell you whether the Creator is happy with you or not. The heart is the representation of the Almighty God. He has kept an ambassador in your heart. He will tell you what God is thinking. That is called the conscience.

If this point is missed by any sadhaka or spiritual seeker, he will be only engaged in certain activity. Sometimes sadhana may also take the form of activity, but meditation is not activity. It is the sinking of the soul into itself.

Very few people will talk to you like this. They will always pamper you and praise you and give you everything that you need, but what you need is not people's grace. You do not require people's grace. You are not alive due to people's grace, though it may look like that. You are alive by the grace of somebody else, Who has sent you here, etc. etc. So whatever has made you important is the blessing that you have already received from God, and it is your duty to keep Him in a good mood always. Do you know the art of keeping God in a good mood?

Visitor: Love.

Swamiji: Here is the whole thing. How would you love that Being that is all enveloping the entire space and time?

Visitor: By loving His creation.

Swamiji: No. He is more than the creation. The architect is greater than the structure that he has built. The poet is greater than the poem that he has written. The doctor is greater than the surgery that he has performed. You are a greater man than the work that you have done because your greatness manifests itself in the surgery that you are conducting. So God is a transcendent being who manifests Himself in the form of creation.

But even if you think it is creation as a whole, can you know the vastness of creation, how vast it is? What is the length and breadth of creation? It encompasses the entire space-time complex. How will you love that? It is possible to do that. If you can do that, your heart will melt into the liquid of the whole universe, and you will be a spark of the Absolute scintillating here. Difficult it is to conceive this. Nobody will talk to you like this, and nobody will help you in thinking like this because people are busy. It is a great virtue nowadays to be busy, and if a man is not busy he is a useless fellow. But you must be busy with that which is going to be your final succour. When everything goes, something remains. A time will come in the life of everybody when everything goes. That will happen to a person at any time, but definitely at the time of passing from this world. That is the final test of the greatness of a person. When a person passes away from this world, how much greatness does he carry with him? Will he go like an industrialist or a millionaire or a big authority in the government? In what capacity will a person leave? That is your real worth. That which remains as the sediment of your personality at the time of your leaving this body, what you are at the time, that is really what you are.

Now, even before that event takes place, we can close our eyes and think: “What is my status?” You must sit alone and think: “What is my real importance?” Let the thought go inside. Do you think you are a very important, great person? Does that answer come from inside or not? Even if you feel that you are a very important, great person, what are the reasons for your feeling like that? What is the greatness that you have got? But if you feel that: “I am a poor little thing, finally. I cannot take even this body with me, let alone the possessions of this body. I will take myself.” Who is this “myself” that is going? That is the quintessence of what you are.

Close your eyes. Feel the presence of that Great Being which is looking at you with infinite eyes. It knows how many times you wink. Your winks are counted, your hairs are counted, your breath is counted. There is no secret in you. Everything is known to the cosmic computerised system. The moment you think, it vibrates in the highest heavens in one second. In that context you think: “What is that Being thinking of me?” Your heart will tell you. He is sitting inside you and prompting you to think. He is working through His instrument, which is His own hand. In the Bhagavadgita it is said everywhere hands, everywhere feet, everywhere eyes, everywhere legs of that Being. So these hands I am seeing here are His hands. The legs are His, the eyes are His. If this vastness of perspective can take possession of you, you will walk on the road as a Cosmic Being. When you go for a walk, you will feel the whole universe is going with you, and you are perfectly in a state of sadhana. You need not sit in a closeted room or in a temple or anything. You are sitting in the temple of the universe; what other temple do you want? You are sitting just now in the temple of the universe, so why do you want another temple? The whole world will follow you when you walk on the road. Can you feel that majesty of such a possibility? You are a world citizen, a citizen of the galaxies, of all space and time – a mighty man, mighty because God has entered you. The great might of the Almighty, as we call it, has entered you, and you are like steel, such strength you have got in your spirit. You came as great, you live as great, and you go as great. Don't humiliate yourself by saying “I am nobody”. If this confidence is in you, you will not come back to this world again. You will be absorbed into the Absolute. This is my little message for you.