Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1998

by Swami Krishnananda

23. Thought and Meditation

(Darshan given in August 1998)

Swamiji: You are dealing with the whole cosmos. You are handling the whole universe in meditation, and you know how complicated and terrible the universe is. But if you are equal to it, it will not harm you. People tame lions and tigers. If you cannot tame them, the universe will behave with you like a lion and tiger; but if you are a circus master, you can touch it and then hug it. The world is a friend of you if you are a master of it. It is an enemy of you if you are a slave of it. Find out whether you are a slave of the world, or a master of it. Why should you live like a slave? You say, “I am a master of everything. I don't want anything. I have got everything with me.” Tell the world, “You come to me. Why should I come to you?” Only a slave goes to somebody else. The master does not go. You run after the world for this thing and that thing. That is slavish mentality. Tell it, “I am a cosmic man. You come to me.” Tell the world, and it will come.

It is a great psychology; and what you think deeply, that will take place. You are not a weak man, nor are you a poor man. The entire resources of nature are with you. Only you are rejecting it by thinking you are from Romania and all that. You are not from Romania; you are from the whole universe. You are a universal being dispatched by God here as an ambassador to glorify Him. You have come here as an ambassador of God. An ambassador's duty is to glorify that country from where he is coming. Ambassadors don't come to eat and drink and sleep. That's not their duty. So likewise, don't be foolish. You must have a very strong mind. You should not talk like a child. You determine: “I am inseparable from the world. Because I am a part of the world, how can I be separable? So the world cannot frighten me. I can embrace the whole world.” Because you are inseparable from it, then immediately energy will grow up inside.

You must meditate on that which is the best thing. There is no 'best thing' anywhere. All meditation will be a waste if this point is not cleared. Is there anything which will wholly absorb you? Your intellect also should be very powerful to think like this. Is there anything in the world which wholly absorbs you? There is nothing. Wholly, unconditionally, nothing will absorb you. Conditionally, okay, but unconditionally, forever, under any circumstance, nobody can absorb you. That is why meditation is not possible. Everything is perishable, and therefore how can it absorb you? You yourself will perish.

But there is something which will not perish. The Creator of the perishable world is not perishable, and He must be greater, grander, more majestic and magnificent, and satisfy more than anything in the world can satisfy. And you cannot say, “My mind is not concentrating.” Why is it not concentrating? Because you don't believe that there is a mighty God. Your mind is thinking of perishable things. There is no faith. The intellect has not accepted it. And the emotion repels. It says, “We don't want all this.” Unless the emotion and the feeling and the intellect join together and become a strong rocket-like force, meditation is not possible. You have to be one 100% sure that you are doing the right thing. You should not doubt: “It may be or may not be. I will go to another Guru and asked him a question.” You don't want any Guru, and all that. You must be 100% sure. People walk on a wire in a circus. If the performers say, “No, I may fall down,” then they will really fall down. They are 100% sure – “I will not fall down. I will walk on the wire” – and they will not fall. But we are not 100% sure about anything. Everything is dubious. You should not think of two things, because two things means one will pull the other.

Years of effort is necessary, years and years of effort. Always one must be calm and quiet, calm and quiet because he has got everything: “My mind is so powerful I can summon whatever I want.” And your intellect is sharp enough and nobody can argue with you, no philosophy can throttle you. You are a greater philosopher than anyone else. This conviction must be there. Confidence is necessary. If you have no confidence in your own self, then how can you do anything? If you are doubting your own capacity, then how can you live in the world? But that strength comes only if you have some stuff in you. It is no use of simply crying and weeping and sleeping, and so on. Many times you have slept like that, many times you were born and many times you have come. Again and again you will be sleeping and dying. If you want to continue that, okay, all right, do it. A very serious matter. There is no use of joking with life.

You should not talk too much and argue too much, and not even read too much. You must see what your fate is. Who controls your fate? Who guarantees the lease of life for you tomorrow? There is a lease of life for you, and it permits you to exist tomorrow. Who gives that lease? You think of that thing; otherwise, the lease will expire in one minute. But it does not expire; it appears. It is getting renewed every day, little by little. But who is renewing it?

Foolishness number one, that is all I can say. We are living a life of foolishness, without understanding anything. “Tomorrow I am going somewhere.” Why are you saying, “Tomorrow I am going somewhere?” You go today itself. There is no tomorrow for you. The whole point is, what I am asking is: What is the future of a person? I am not talking of today or tomorrow. What are you going to do in this world, finally? That is the question. Are you born here only to read books? One day the lease will expire, and the lease will be renewed in the other world. To another world you have to go to get the lease renewed. Who is giving you the lease of existing? From where is the order coming? You catch hold of that force.

We are not breathing because of the capacity in us to breathe. There is something which allows you to breathe. There is something that controls everything. You cannot even see an object outside unless there is something permitting you to see it. The eyes are not going and jumping on the mountain. The mountain is so far away. When there is such a distance between you and the mountain, how are you becoming aware that it is there? You are not contacting the mountain. Without contacting it, how do you come to know that it is existing? What is the secret?

An ashramite: That is the Cosmic Consciousness, Swamiji.

Swamiji: You have uttered that. You could have uttered that in the beginning itself. Why you make me speak so much? [Laughter] In the beginning itself you could have told this. So Cosmic Consciousness operates, and nobody else operates. Can you believe this, and adhere to this in your feelings?

Ashramite: I'm trying to do that only.

Swamiji: Don't say, “I will try.” If you go to exam, don't say, “I will try to pass.” Don't say like that. Don't go with hesitation. When you appear for exam, say, “I shall pass.” “I shall stand first,” you must say. “Why should I go number three?” Then at least number two will come.

Another ashramite: The universe is one organism, Swamiji, you said.

Swamiji: If you know that, then you will not talk to me afterwards. The mouth will be shut. This sentence that you have uttered will make your mouth shut. Then there is nothing to say afterwards.

It compels you to think It by the very analysis of the thought process. If you think correctly, you are simply dragged to That. Every thought is a total thought. Every thought will drag you to there. You should not be wasting time in talking like that. It is a most blessed thing. It is listening. It can understand what you are saying. It has got all eyes and all ears, and everything. It knows what you are talking. You should not say, “It does not know anything. I am simply chatting in the room.” It is not like that. There is no 'room' for That. Every thought that you are able to entertain in regard to That is a great credit in your bank account, and It will give compound interest. One good thought about It is a permanent credit, a permanent fixed deposit with compound interest. Svalpam apyasya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt (B.G. 2.40): One inch forward is sufficient. It will gallop 100 feet towards you.