Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1998

by Swami Krishnananda

49. Individual Will, Deep Sleep and Brahman

(Darshan given on December 14th, 1998)

Swamiji: We are unnecessarily boasting about our importance. We don't even exist independently.

An ashramite: Swamiji, in the Yoga of Meditation book Swamiji has said the individual will is just a chimera, it does not exist at all.

Swamiji: There is a sloka from Panchadasi: The purushakara means the self-effort. God Himself acts as the so-called effort of the individual human being. When the universal action takes place through the individuality of the person, it looks like it is an individual effort. There is only one action taking place everywhere. Nobody does anything. Only one Being is working.

Millions and millions of people were fighting in the Mahabharata war – Arjuna, this man, that man – but actually, one man was working there silently. Brahma itself won victory for the gods, and they were very proud, so he kept a straw before them and asked them to burn it, and so on. It was won by the Universal Being only.

Ashramite: Swamiji, when we come back from deep sleep, we all come back from the same existence, but why one soul doesn't become another soul? How the same soul continues in that same body?

Swamiji: Because the individuality is still persisting in sleep.

Ashramite: But we all go to existence which is...

Swamiji: No, we don't go to existence.

Ashramite: Swamiji, he says like a drop of water which is thrown into a mass of water...

Swamiji: No, no, it doesn't go like that. In deep sleep you are not becoming a mass of water. You maintain individuality still; otherwise, how will you wake up? You would merge into the Brahman in deep sleep.  The very fact that you are waking up as an individual shows you have not abolished your individuality. It was in a seed form, only unconsciously. Seeds thrown on the desert sand, which will sleep for years together, will suddenly sprout when the rain comes. The contention that you go to Brahman in deep sleep is futile; otherwise, how will you wake up?

Ashramite: Anandamaya... In the sutra it seems...

Swamiji: It is there. Sankaracharya was caught up between the two horns of a dilemma because the sutra says this is Brahman only. He said, “Yes, yes, okay.” He went on saying, “Yes, yes.” He has agreed because he cannot fight with the Brahma Sutra. Then finally he adds, “I have to say something here.” That is the whole thing. He turned the whole thing. Anandamaya cannot, because maya means 'full of'. Brahman is not full of anything. Brahman is Brahman only.

Ashramite: But Swamiji has also said, in deep sleep we are in the lap of Brahman.

Swamiji: Lap of Brahman, unconsciously, like a blindfolded person being lifted and kept on the throne of a king and brought back. But you cannot say you were king for a few minutes. Consciousness is important. Action by itself and what things are taking place, they are not important. Are you conscious of the fact that you were lifted and kept on the throne of the king? If that is not there, then like a fool you went, like a fool you came back. That is no good. Very subtle matter.

[Later on]

Swamiji: Nothing is different from anything else. Everything is interconnected. Even if you do physical exercise, it has got cosmic significance. It is not an individual man bending the body, and all that. The five elements cooperate with this bodily structure when you do asanas, and the very purpose of this yoga asana is to set the whole muscles and nerves in tune with the operation of the whole of prakriti. So this is spirituality there also. There are no unspiritual things. My opinion is you should never use the word 'unspiritual'. It doesn't exist at all. Everything is a wonderful play of this cosmic operation going on, and in the eye of God you can see everywhere – sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ tat (B.G. 13.14). There is no place where the eye of God is absent. Everything is an art, everything is beautiful... Even cooking and sweeping, washing vessels, everything is an art.

There was a shoemaker in Germany called Jacob Boehme. He could see the light of the Supreme Absolute in some ray falling on the shoes itself. “Oh, see, see! It is coming from the Absolute.” He ran in ecstasy.

Sometimes stupid things which look meaningless can be highly spiritual. One person, during the time of Moses, was so simple, a simpleton. He was praying to God, “What is the size of your leg, God? Please tell me. I want to make a pair of shoes for you. Please tell me. I am a shoemaker. I want to make beautiful shoes for you. Please tell me the size of your feet.” At that time, Moses was passing. “Hey,” he said. “Have you any sense? Do you think God wears shoes? This is not the way of praying.” The man was heartbroken. “So my request to God is futile.” That night Moses had a dream. God spoke, “Why did you disturb my devotee? He is my true devotee. His feelings are genuine, and your logic and philosophy have no meaning. Go and pacify him.” Moses went and said, “God has told me you are correct.” [Swamiji laughs]

Before God there is nothing stupid. Everything is beautiful if the heart is open. If your love of God is complete and is simply ebullient and overwhelmed with feeling for Him, then the dirtiest thing becomes most beautiful. If there is no place where God is not, then there is nothing in which spirituality is not. Secularism, non-secularism, and all this is unnecessary talk. They neither know this, nor they know that.

Yesterday I had a dream like this. I deeply meditate on this, day and night; at midnight also, there is only one thought. Later, in the morning, I felt like rain is falling. From the whole cosmos it is raining. I felt very happy. The whole world was melting down and falling on me, like this. This cannot be found in books. Dharma megha samadhi is like this.

There is an answer for everything, if only you do meditation. Books cannot give the answer. Whether an atom bomb manufactured by Atal Bihari Vajpayee is good or not, you can from your intuition tell something about it. It is not by newspaper reading and Clinton doing, and all that. Everything has a basis and some connection with cosmic operations. Then you can see what is right, what is wrong. You cannot say what is right and what is wrong by simply taking an ethical book. That is no good. The right and the wrong depend upon the way in which you envisage the whole cosmos. There is no book. The book is only meditation.

You must be confident that you are a friend of the universe. This is not a joke or anything. It is behind me, and I summon anything from that. Otherwise, what is the use of meditation if you don't achieve anything at all, if the satisfaction required cannot come, if there is diffidence inside?