Darshan with Swami Krishnananda – 1997

by Swami Krishnananda

49. Giddy with God

(Darshan given on September 12th, 1997)

A visitor: I was at the Vasishtha Cave this morning, my first time there. I went inside and sat for a while, and it felt very natural and nothing special – just very natural and good, but nothing extraordinary. I left the cave and suddenly felt intoxicated. What was the difference? It would seem that if you went into the cave you would be intoxicated, and when you leave you would not.

Swamiji: What did you feel when you were intoxicated? Did you feel giddy?

Visitor: No.

Swamiji: Then what is intoxication?

Visitor: A fullness. I can't describe it.

Swamiji: Fullness? You call fullness as intoxication. Okay, all right. Fullness also can be intoxicating. There have been saints who were giddy with God. They became giddy because of God entering. You understand me? They are called God-mad people, God-mad. It is a different kind of madness.

It is believed that this cave was once upon a time the residence of a great spiritual master called Vasishtha, a great mastermind with cosmic powers. That vibration perhaps influenced you, especially if your mind was receptive, if you went there in a receptive mood. Be happy. Who else wants to talk to me?

Another visitor: He just asked a question I was really wondering about, which is about these blissful experiences. It seemed to me that the blissful experiences could be some kind of distraction.

Swamiji: Blissful experience is a distraction? What do you mean by that?

Visitor: Well, I mean whenever I have a blissful experience or light or something like that I become...

Swamiji: Distraction is a state where one is out of contact with the centre, and a person who is out of contact with the centre cannot be blissful. So there is nothing called distraction due to blissfulness. It is a contradiction in terms. It cannot be. When a person is out of contact with the centre, there is distraction, and only when you are united with the centre you are blissful, so bliss and distraction cannot go together. They are two different things.

Visitor: The question is more to do with the fact that when the bliss wears off it seems to bring unhappiness, because I just want to have that bliss again. So perhaps that's more the thing. So sometimes it seems it's better not to have the bliss than the desire for the bliss.

Swamiji: I am telling you, bliss is not distraction. It is unified experience. Only when your experience is unified and centralised, you feel blissful, and if you are distracted there cannot be bliss. You will be only disturbed in the mind. In distraction you are out of yourself; in blissfulness you are in yourself. That is the difference.

Visitor: So you're saying what I'm talking about is not bliss.

Swamiji: What you are talking about is distraction. That has no connection with centralisation of oneself. They are two different things. Distraction is an aberration and a moving away from the centre of one's being, and blissfullness is centralisation in one's own self. The more you are yourself, the more are you blissful. The more are you not yourself, the more are you distracted.

Another visitor: Are thought and imagination the same thing?

Swamiji: No. Imagination is one function of the thought. Many other activities are going on in the mind. Imagination is thinking without a content. If there is thinking with a content, you can call it thinking of something. Imagination is just thinking without a content inside – bare abstraction. It has no purpose. So what is your problem?

Visitor: How to just discriminate between... I have a strong imagination.

Swamiji: About what are you imagining?

Visitor: What you said like a rope and a snake, my imagination can be strong.

Swamiji: What are you imagining?

Visitor: Now nothing. I'm talking to you.

Swamiji: Why are you raising this question unless you have some imagination?

Visitor: If I try and keep my mind still, then thoughts come up and then they can just go in many directions.

Swamiji: That is because you have no aim. You have not chosen any particular aim on which you have to concentrate. You are allowing the mind to go anywhere without any chosen purpose. What do you want the mind to do?

Visitor: I want it to be better trained and focused.

Swamiji: Trained for what purpose? To think something deeply?

Visitor: So that I have better awareness, so that I can use my mind more wisely with greater awareness.

Swamiji: There is no need of knowing your mind, because you yourself are the mind. How can you know your mind when you yourself are the mind? It is like mind knowing itself. The whole personality sitting here is nothing but an embodiment of mind. It is the mind speaking to me, not Mister so-and-so from England. The mind is speaking. And so you are saying, “How will I know my mind?” It is the mind saying, “How will I know myself?” Have you got any problem in your meditation?

Visitor: No, not as such. I just do a short meditation.

Swamiji: Do you study anything?

Visitor: I've studied Buddhism and Yoga.

Swamiji: That is general reading. Anything concentratedly for the purpose of disciplined meditation, are you doing something towards that?

Visitor: A little. I can see I can do a lot more.

Swamiji: Everybody should have an aim, finally. So many things are being done, everybody is busy, everybody is active, they go on doing all kinds of work, but they do it with a purpose. That ultimate purpose should be clear to your mind. There may be a temporary purpose, but what is the ultimate purpose? You go in some direction because you want to reach a place. The moving in one direction has a purpose of reaching a place. But why do you want to reach that place? That has another purpose. You want to achieve something there, and do some work. Why do you want to do that work? So that has another purpose. Like that you go on finding out purpose behind purpose, purpose behind purpose, cause behind cause. Finally you will find there is an indescribable eluding purpose which is haunting the mind of every person, which easily cannot be grasped without the guidance of a competent person.

Nobody can outright give an answer what is the ultimate purpose. There will be always some confusion. The ultimate purpose nobody knows. “Everything is okay. I want this, I want that,” but why you want to do this thing and that thing? What is the final thing? If everything goes, what remains? To achieve that is the purpose. Just imagine – you were just now mentioning about imagination, so have imagination. Just imagine everything is going, nothing is there. All ground under the foot is shaking. At that time, what do you want? Then the mind will concentrate. Go slowly. Don't be in a hurry.

Visitor: Ok.