Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1997

by Swami Krishnananda

21. Meditation is the Greatest Service

(Darshan given on March 5th, 1997.)

A visitor: I want to serve the world.

Swamiji: Think in the cosmic level, and everybody in the world is included inside that. There are no people outside that thought because you are operating through the cosmic mind at that time; therefore, there are no people outside that. All the people have got small minds, individual minds. But now you have gone beyond those things. It is the universal mind, and so when you think through that, you are thinking through everybody else also simultaneously. It is like going to the root of the tree, which is equal to touching every branch automatically. When you manure and water the root of the tree, you have done service to each branch automatically. You need not go on pouring water to every branch and leaf separately.

This is a thing which the mind has to accept, but because your mind is individually thinking, you may find it a little difficult to understand what it is. You become a larger, comprehensive mind which includes the minds of everybody else, and what service can be greater than that? You are working through the minds of everybody, and can there be a service greater than that? It is the highest service, and also the greatest blessing. You are blessing them.

Visitor: So meditation is…

Swamiji: Meditation is the greatest service. Nothing is equal to that. The greatest people in the world are unknown to society. The people who are known to society, whose names appear in the newspapers, they are all third-class great people. The greatest people come silently and go silently; they leave their thoughts to vibrate in the eternity of the firmament, and that is the great blessing that they give. They want nothing from anybody. They are unknown people, but they are known to the Almighty God.

When Swami Vivekananda went to America and gave some lectures, he said these great people whom you think of as Christs and Buddhas, they are all second-rate heroes. The greatest heroes, you have never heard of. They don't descend into birth at all. The greatest people never descend into the earth plane. They are in the astral plane. From there itself they start operating.

It is like treating a disease from inside rather than from outside. You treat the very causal body itself, which is the cause of every kind of illness, which is better than treating the physical body outside. So likewise, they are in the higher level of spirit, which operates through every body, every person, every individual in the world. When you close your eyes and think the welfare of a person, you have already contributed your duty towards the welfare of that person. Your thought is your service. It is a greater service than physical movement.

Visitor: So this effort of meditation that we do morning and evening is our contribution to the welfare of humanity?

Swamiji: It all depends upon what you think in meditation. Your meditation should be cosmic; then it will work. It should not be a mere experiment. You are not doing experiments. It is a down-to-earth entry into the reality of life, and then it will work. Even your one-hour meditation is a great service that you are doing, not only for your salvation but for the blessedness of everybody. If some few hundreds of people in the whole world make centres of meditation like this, it will vibrate in a positive manner and contribute to the blessedness of everybody.

So have a meditation centre in Italy when you go there. Like that, everybody may start in all the countries. In India, in Europe, in America, in England, everywhere, let a few people join together, sit, and create a vibration of this cosmic meditation. They will all start vibrating, and then contribute to the blessedness of the earth. That is the greatest service that you do to humanity, and at the same time a service to God Himself. Nothing is equal to that.

Wherever you are, continue the same practice that you have been doing here. It is immaterial where you are. Wherever you are, the same method should be done. Whatever you are doing here, that you do anywhere else.

Another visitor: In meditation, are you actually indirectly concentrating on the thinker?

Swamiji: Who is the thinker?

Visitor: The principle of consciousness.

Swamiji: That is the Universal Being. The principle of consciousness is universal. It is not sitting somewhere. The thinker is the Universal Being. It is a direct concentration on the supreme thinker, which is the Universal Being. There is only one thinker in the universe. The thinker is only one. There are no many thinkers.

Visitor: Then how can one think the thinker? One cannot think the thinker.

Swamiji: When you think the Universal Being, you have thought the thinker. It is the thinker thinking himself, or rather God thinking Himself. There is only one thinker, finally.

Another visitor: If someone is sick, can we contribute to his recovery through our sadhana?

Swamiji: You are asking whether your sadhana can diminish his sickness?

Visitor: Yes.

Swamiji: You see, if you have only one bucketful of water and you go on giving it to thirsty people, the water will become less and less. But if you are a sea like the Arabian Ocean, any quantity of water you can give to thirsty people and you will never diminish. So it depends upon what you are. If your resources are endless, any amount you can give to other people and it will not diminish. But if you have got limited resources, to that extent it will become a little less and less. So you find out what is your amount of resource. If your resources are only a bucketful and something goes out… But if you have got endless strength, then you will not feel anything. If a person is a millionaire and he gives a five-rupee donation to somebody, he will not feel the pinch of it. But if he gives half of his money, half of it goes to somebody, he will feel the pinch of it.