Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1998

by Swami Krishnananda

18. Not Thinking is a Kind of Thinking

(Darshan given on April 21st, 1998)

Swamiji: Not thinking also is a kind of thinking, of a different type. Nothing is so easy here in this world. Everything has got some tack.

Visitor: Why does it seem so hard not to think?

Swamiji: There is no such thing. It doesn't exist. You don't understand what you are speaking. It is the mind that is thinking, that is saying that it does not want to think. The thought that it is not necessary to think is also a thinking; otherwise, who is thinking? Who is saying that “I am not thinking”? It is the mind only that is saying it. There is nobody else outside the mind. The mind says, “I do not want to think.” But who is saying that? It is the mind only. The mind is thinking that it is not necessary for it to think. It is a trick played by the mind. It looks as if it is doing something, while it is really doing nothing. Every thought, even the desire not to think, is also a thought. So you cannot get over it. But you can get over it by some higher techniques of integral meditation.

You should not go on uttering the words 'thought', 'mind', and all that. They are all poor words. You have to be very careful, and you have to be guided properly. It requires guidance; otherwise, we will defeat our own selves by some ideas which are badly construed.

The negation of one's existence is an assertion of the existence. Be careful. You must have a Guru, a Guru who is not going to deceive you but who will guard you. Gurus who will deceive you are many in the world, but those who will guard you are very few. Very difficult.

[Later on]

As the Pursha Sukta says, sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt, sa bhūmiṁ viśvato vṛtvātyatiṣṭad daśāgulam. Puruṣa evedaṁ sarvaṁ: There is only one man in the whole universe. There are not many people, as we have an indication of it in the Visvarupa Darshan Yoga of the Bhagavadgita. “Look at Me,” Lord Krishna says. “What do you see here?” Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: “There is nothing outside Me. Think of Me.” Now, these have to be collated. Think of Me as that Being, outside which there is nothing. Is it possible to think like that? Can we imagine a Being outside which there is nothing, and which we are expected to contemplate on? This is, in my opinion, the essence of spirituality.

But the mind cannot comprehend it. Can anyone comprehend a state of being where there is nothing outside that Being? If it is so, then one's own self also is not outside that Being. The meditator also does not stand outside it because nothing outside it exists. So who is meditating? An astounding truth it is. It is meditating on itself. Then what is your role? Your role is attunement with that Being, and to think as It thinks.

If you can see as God sees and think as God thinks, one can know what the consequence is. A miracle will take place, a miracle. God does not take time to come, because He is timeless. He does not come tomorrow; He comes just now. There is no tomorrow for Him because there is no time. The idea of past, present, future is a question of time. He is timeless. So how much time God takes to come? Instantaneous. It is not a temporal process. It is eternity acting. God coming means everything coming. Everything comes in one instant, in one stroke. The whole world falls at the feet of this person.

Difficult to imagine. People run after things, but there is a condition where things will follow this person. The world is attractive for people. People run after the world, but there is a condition where the world will run after this person. Impossible to conceive, but it is necessary to think like this; otherwise, we will pass away like paupers and take birth again. Any kind of carelessness about the welfare of one's own self is a great mistake. Sanatsujata speaks to Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharata: Carelessness about one's own welfare is equal to death.

The Bhagavadgita is a difficult thing to understand, though people read it every day and so many commentaries have been written. The moot point is how to “think of Me, and outside Me there is nothing”. What does it mean, actually? How can anyone think of something outside which there is nothing, which implies one's own self also? Even one's own self is not external to that Being. What is the state of the mind in this condition? One becomes giddy. Yatra nānyat paśyati says the Chhandogya Upanishad. Yatra nānyat paśyati nānyac chṛṇoti nānyad vijānāti sa bhūmā: The plenum of facility, Absolute bliss, is that condition where one need not have to see anything outside, no need to hear anything outside, no need to think anything outside. Atha yatrānyat paśyaty anyac chṛṇoty anyad vijānāti tad alpam, yo vai bhūmā tad amṛtam is a great declaration in the Chhandogya Upanishad: Perishable is that life where one has to see something outside, hear something outside, and think something outside. Where there is no need to do this, Being engulfs Being. Bhuma, fullness, is the Absolute – Brahman, as they call it.

Everybody should find time to sit and think like this, whatever be the hard work that one does, whatever be the busy life that one leads. One does not want to save oneself. How foolish a person can be! But nobody knows what is oneself – this body, son of so-and-so, and all that. We require a new kind of education these days.