Darshan with Swami Krishnananda – 1997

by Swami Krishnananda

52. Vedantic Meditation

(Darshan given on October 16th, 1997)

Swamiji [to an ashramite]: Imagine that there is a pure cloth; that is Brahman. A painter stiffens the cloth with starch; that is Ishvara. Then he draws outlines of the proposed painting; that is Hiranyagarbha. Then he fills it with colour; that is Virat. This Virat is a wonderful thing, and Hiranyagarbha, and Ishvara, stiffened, everything. And the background is cloth only. If that is not there, the whole thing will go away. So in order to make a layman understand what is actually Brahman, Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat, this analogy of a painted picture he has given. So at the back of every stage, the cloth is there. Without the cloth, nothing will be there. And this Virat includes the whole five elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether, and the forces inside, tanmatras, and all the material out of which our body and mind are made. So we can imagine who we are. In one second you will be stunned to realise who you are. This is one way of meditation. I'm not saying everybody should meditate only in this way. There are so many ways, even bhakti also. One of the methods is this Vedantic meditation, the highest type of meditation.

When we go from this world, we must go smiling that everything is fine. You should not repent: “What have I done? I have done nothing. It is all useless, suffering. Where I go, I don't know anything.” Like that you should not think. If at all such ideas come, it is better to finish it now itself, and when you go, go with a clear mind because the law of this world will not operate in the next world, just as Indian law will not operate in America. When you go to America, American law will apply. The other world is a different thing, so unless you are friendly with that law also, you will not be accepted there. You will be kicked out. There are so many levels of reality through which you have to pass, so that we must know the law of every level of reality. We have to belong to the whole universe itself in one way. We have to become a citizen of the world, as people say. We have to become a citizen of the cosmos. Then instantaneously help will come. Unasked it can come.

Swamiji [to a visitor]: What exactly is the way in which you meditate? What method are you adopting?

Visitor: Basically the one that Ramana Maharshi gave out.

Swamiji: Oh, Ramana Maharshi. What is the method?

Visitor: Who am I.

Swamiji: Who are you? Tell me.

Visitor: I was hoping you would tell me.

Swamiji: No, but you have already understood something. According to your present perception, who would you be? Who are you? You said, “I am coming from Israel.” That is one kind of I: “I have come from Israel.”

Visitor: My body.

Swamiji: But Ramana Maharshi will not say, “I have come from Israel.” What do you say? You speak to me in the language of Ramana Maharshi, and not in the language of an Israelite. So who are you, possibly?

Visitor: I don't think there is an intellectual answer to this question.

Swamiji: You give me any other answer, not intellectual.

Visitor: Okay, I will tell you what I read. Aham brahmasmi.

Swamiji: Ramana Maharshi does not say like that, to my knowledge. He does not say aham brahmasmi and all that. He has got some other method. He is telling you who you are. What is this I? Now somebody has come from Israel, isn't it? Is it true that somebody has come from Israel? Are you hesitating? Now who has come from Israel? Brahman?

Visitor: No, the body came from Israel.

Swamiji: So you are a body. Then who has come from Israel?

Visitor: I used the term 'I' because it is easy in conversation.

Swamiji: You may have some means of communicating, okay, but what do you feel in the heart of your heart? What do you feel? In your own conscience, what do you feel you are? Let the books say anything, let Ramana Maharshi say anything; in your own conscience what do you feel you are personally?

Visitor: I don't think I can put it into words what I am.

Swamiji: But something, some idea you have got.

Visitor: I am something which does not change.

Swamiji: Something which is not changing. Have you seen anything in the world which does not change?

Visitor: Not in this world, no.

Swamiji: Then something which is not in the world is that which does not change.

Visitor: Yes.

Swamiji: So you are not in this world.

Visitor: No.

Swamiji: So where are you? I am driving you into a corner slowly.

Visitor: I'm not anywhere, and I am everywhere.

Swamiji: I have extracted some good words from you, good words, but I had to take some time to do that by digging like that, little by little. These last words you uttered are a wonderful thing. These last words you uttered are really wonderful, and if you can go on thinking this continuously, you will really become wonderful, and grand, majestic. Oh, glorious! Then you will have no difficulties afterwards. These words that you have uttered should go into your mind very deep, and if possible, don't think in any other manner. Think only in this way. Don't go on thinking Israel and all that. You say this is another thing altogether.

Another visitor: I don't see there is a God, maybe within ourselves, maybe not. I don't know. I haven't found the answer yet.

Swamiji: Usually the popular concept of God is of an Eternal Being which has created this universe. The Creator of the universe is called God. So if you logically develop this thought from effect to cause, you will be able to appreciate the nature of God. What you call the world, the universe, which is supposed to be a creation of God, is so vast and incomprehensible in its extent and content, that logically, when you deduce facts, you would conclude that the Creator must be a larger thing than the whole created universe. If the created object itself is so big and inscrutable, the Creator must be more inscrutable and larger in extent and more profound than the world is.

Can you conceive the universe in your mind? Forget God for the time being. Look at the skies and the stars and time-space, and the whole process of evolution going on in the universe biologically, organically, geologically, astronomically, whatever it is. Stupendous activity is going on in this large atmosphere called the universe, in which you are involved, so this whole universal activity is taking you also inside its process of activity. You are part and parcel of this whole universe. If that is the case, your idea that you are coming from some country may have to be modified. You are, for the time being, for practical purposes, perhaps coming from a country on this earth, but if you consider that you belong to the whole cosmic structure, the universe that has been created, you will find that you are a citizen of the whole universe, not of any country. You may not be even a human being – something more than that – because the universe is not made up of human beings only. It is an impersonal organisation where human species and other species are only insignificant specks, as it were.

So by this analysis you would be able to appreciate your own dignity of existence. You have got a great dignity. You are not a small person. You are not just somebody or nobody among many other people. It is not like that. You have the support of the whole universe. When I mentioned you are a citizen of the universe, the government of the universe will take care of you. Okay? This is the thing. If this is the case, God also will protect you because the universe is the body of God.

This is only preliminary words I am speaking to you in order to introduce you into the ultimate spiritual concept of the practice of meditation. There are various techniques of meditation – meditating on the breath, meditating on some part of the body, on the middle of the eyebrows, on the heart, on anywhere. All kinds of techniques are there, but the highest thing is this kind of contemplation that I am introducing to your mind. This is the highest kind of spiritual meditation. If this has entered into your mind and you are appreciating it, you will feel a kind of elation in your own personality that you are in a friendly world with forces around which are going to cooperate with you, and you are a friend of God Himself. This idea will come to you. You will feel comforted, you will never make complaints, and you will feel one day or other the kingdom of God will open its gates for you. With these prayerful moods you carry on your prayers and meditations. This is, briefly, something I am telling you.