Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1997

by Swami Krishnananda

56. Total Action

(Darshan given on November 30th, 1997)

Swamiji: Who is allowing us to exist at all? The whole universe is working through us to make us breathe. It is total action taking place. “I have done everything,” he [Sri Krishna] says. The whole universe is breathing through your nose. Unless the entire universe acts, you cannot even breathe. You cannot even lift a finger. All action is total action. There is no 'my action' and 'your action', and all that. Even if a million processes are taking place inside the body, it is the body's total action taking place. We are breathing, the heart is working, the brain is thinking, the hand is bringing food, and the stomach is digesting food. Everything is going on, but it is one action taking place – one organic, total action taking place. It is not that the stomach is doing some work digesting, and the nose is breathing, the heart is pumping. It is not like that. They look like different actions, but one action is taking place – a total.

[A few minutes later] A union is established simultaneously in meditation. We are not going so far as that, but at least you should not come in conflict with nature. We are always thinking of conquering nature nowadays. Nature is not to be conquered. Nature is not an enemy. You are a part of nature. You are in the world, so how will you conquer the world? The idea of conquering the world is also not a correct perspective. You cannot conquer anything. You have to be harmonious with things. You are participating in the nature of truth, and not grabbing, conquering, possessing, and all that. The whole perspective of life has to change in yoga. The thinking process itself changes. You don't possess anything, but you participate in things. If I am fully in harmony with your existence, you are my friend. I need not possess you; I need not convert you into my servant. That idea itself should go away. We are friends. Not only friends, we are moving parallelly. As I think, you think. As you think, I think. My perspective is your perspective, as if we are one person in two bodies. Like that, if you adopt this technique with everything else, it is one soul abiding in all the forms. That soul which abides in all the forms is God. This has to be achieved gradually, stage by stage, stage by stage.

First of all, you must be healthy in your mind and makeup. There should be no complaint or harassment of the emotions inside. The mind should be happy; then a happy mind can become happy with other people also. Then you can be happy with nature, with flowers, sunrise, sunset, rain. Everything is beautiful. Nothing is wrong in nature. You must be friendly with everything. It is beautiful. The day is beautiful, sunrise is beautiful, moonrise is beautiful, the breeze is beautiful, Himalayas are beautiful, Ganga is beautiful. Everything is beautiful in God's creation.

Then finally, the mind should remember the whole universe is created by One Being. With that you must be in harmony. Then everything will be set right. The Supreme Being is God, the final commander, and if your mind is in tune with His thought, there is no problem afterwards. You have to be in tune with everything: with yourself, with society, with nature, with God. This is a fourfold harmony that we have to establish, which is the aim of yoga.

It is not chanting mantra and going to chapel, mosque, and all that. It is not a religion at all. It is the pure science or art of adjustment with the total reality. It is a perfect science. It is not Hindu, it is not Christian, it is not Buddhist. It is simply for every human being. It is meant for human beings, not Hindus and Buddhists and so on. We must be human beings first, not anything else. If everything goes away, we will remain as human beings. One is a president, another is a prime minister, a third is an army general, and so on. One is a boss, another is a servant. These are all unnecessary complications we are creating by designating people in this manner. Finally, when everything goes, he is a human being. The boss is a human being, the servant is a human being. As human beings, they are identical. They eat the same food, they have got the same hunger and thirst, same fatigue, same emotions, same requirements. The boss is not eating gold and the servant is eating rice. They are eating the same food.

Psychological, social and statistical differences make people look different. Finally, when everything goes, everybody is just a human being, as when you were born as a child. When you are born, you are a little baby. You don't know whether it is a king's child or a beggar's child. And when a person goes, the king goes and the beggar goes in the same way. When the king goes, he doesn't go with a palanquin. He will go to the dust in the same way as a beggar goes. So in the beginning you are nobody; in the end also you are nobody. In the middle people simply pat themselves on the back. It is a balloon only. The importance in the middle is a balloon, which has nothing inside.

Actually, your real status is that which you brought with you when you were born, and your real status is that which you will take with you when you go. And if you have no status at all either side, then there is no status for any person. It is only an imagination. Nature is final, God is final, and with them you must be in harmony.

You must be humble first. We must be good people. We should not treat others as dirt. That is not proper. There is no dirt. Even an ant is not dirt. It is as important as you. It has got a brain, it has got eyes, it has got hunger, it has got feelings, and it lives more systematically, like an army. Ants have got an army of their own. Very systematically they will be moving. When rain comes, they will all move together in a line. Birds have got their own army. They work beautifully. They have got a congregation of their own. Even monkeys have congregation. Cattle go together. Only human beings cannot go together. They quarrel because of their egoism. These natural species don't have egoism. Man is full of ego, ahankara, so he clashes with another.

Man is afraid of man only. He is not afraid of lions and tigers. There is fear in the heart of every person, but fear from whom? Fear from his own brother. We have guns and machine guns and airplanes and firearms and all that. Is it to protect yourself from enemies like lions and tigers? Are you afraid of lions and tigers? Nobody thinks of them. But you are afraid of human beings: “My brother will attack me, so I keep a gun with me.” See the mentality of human beings! One person cannot have any confidence in another person, though we may have confidence even in a dog. The dog will follow you, but man will not follow.

So you become a human being first. Each one should realise one's own stature. When everything goes from your hand, what are you? That is your real nature. You have lost every property, every belonging, every kind of connection; still you are existing. At that time, how are you existing? That is your real nature. If you feel, “I am still a great man in spite of all things going away from me,” then you are really great, like an elephant. An elephant does not require any kind of vote from people: “You are a very powerful elephant.” But a human being requires a vote in order that he may become powerful. With the vote comes doubt. The elephant becomes a dog afterwards.

This is a very serious matter. We are suffering from ahankara, egoism, selfishness and corruption, which is not to be seen in animals. Animals don't have corruption. They do not possess property. They don't grab someone's belonging. Why is it? How is it that animals are better than us in certain types of conduct and behaviour? A lion will not attack a lion, but a man will attack a man. Now, who is better? You tell me. See the situation.

So if you train yourself properly inwardly and outwardly and transcendentally also, then yoga comes automatically. Yoga is your mother and father, which keeps you in tune with the ultimate realities of everybody. You become a friend of all. Thank you very much. God bless you.