Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1998

by Swami Krishnananda

50. Entering the Cosmic Being

(Darshan given on December 25th, 1998)

A visitor: What should be the thought when I'm seeing that I'm entering the Cosmic Being?

Swamiji: You are thinking of the Cosmic Being only.

Visitor: But it should have some form or shape or some...

Swamiji: No, no, no. You cannot have any form. You can consider...

Visitor: It is total light or total darkness or something.

Swamiji: No no no, no no no. It is brightness, immense brightness. The melting down... I will give you an illustration. Melting down of the earth in water, you imagine. The whole earth is melting in water, the water dries up in the heat of fire, fire is extinguished by air, air enters into space. Finally there is only space and time. Can you imagine the extent of space and time? How vast is space, how vast is time – endless expanse of cosmic comprehensiveness, in which you are included. You are not standing outside space just to look at it.

The space-time complex, the whole universe as you call it, is your parent, your father and mother. It is the stuff out of which you are made, so from this point of view you don't exist at all. You exist as the Universal Being; you work as a Universal Being and react with people as a Universal Being, as God would react to people, and then you will find you are very, very happy. Just now you said, “I am not very, very...,” but now I am telling you that you are very, very happy. There is a force which protects you, which feeds you, takes care of you and consoles you, and gives you whatever you want. What else is there?

Visitor: I am chanting that Rudram Chamakam, I am doing abhishekam. That also I think...

Swamiji: All right, very good. You can continue.

Visitor: I will think to Swamiji at that time also.

Swamiji: You know Rudram Chamakam by heart?

Visitor: Yes.

Swamiji: Very good, very good. Lord Siva will bless you.

Visitor: When I'm chanting that, I should think of this light only? Can I think about that alone so that I can have only one thought everywhere?

Swamiji: Lord Siva is also included in this Universal Being. All the gods, all the angels, all the forces of nature, everybody is included in this One Being. You will find Rudra, Siva, also sitting there. Brahma also is there. You and I, everybody is there. The concept of such a thing requires tremendous willpower and clear understanding, and utter dispassion. You must be an impersonal man, not a person, and you will feel that people will get attracted to you. The personal gets attracted to the impersonal. So if you are remaining as a person only, the other person may repel you, but if you are an imperson, he will get pulled towards you. This is a kind of meditation.

What else I can tell you? You want anything else from me?

Visitor: I want your blessings.

Swamiji: Okay, God bless you. Take some Ganga jal when you go.

[Later on]

Swamiji: The Veda cannot be understood without the Itihasas and Puranas: itihāsapurāṇābhyāṃ vedaṃ samupabṛṃhayet (M.B. 1.1.204). In the Mahabharata itself this is said. The Vedas say, “This man is wanting to kill me because he has not understood my meaning.” The meaning is expounded in the Smritis, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas. So the scriptures of the Hindus – Vedas, Smriti, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas – all things combined become the scripture of the Hindus, it is mentioned. The Vedas are the highest authority, but their meaning cannot be understood, so elicitation is necessary.

In the Mahabharata, in the beginning itself, it is mentioned itihāsapurāṇābhyāṃ vedaṃ samupabṛṃhayet, bibhetyalpaśrutādvedo māmayaṃ pratariṣyati. An illiterate man who is studying the Veda is actually killing it, and so the elicitation is necessary by means of the epics – Ramayana, Mahabharata epics – and the Puranas: itihāsapurāṇābhyāṃ vedaṃ samupabṛṃhayet. The fullness and the variety and the depth of religion cannot be understood merely by chanting Samhitas.

[Later on]

Swamiji: God Almighty – everything is inside that. The whole universe is inside God. You are also inside that. When He created the universe, He created you also. He created the sun, moon, stars, everything. You just open your eyes, look around, and mentally imagine: “I am beholding the Cosmic Being in front of me. I am inside Him. He is absorbing me into Himself. All the actions that I perform are His actions. My fingers are all His fingers, my mind is His mind. Everything that I do is done by Him only. I am only a motivating individualised factor. I am an instrument in His hand, like a fountain pen.” If a person writes a book with a fountain pen, the credit does not go to the fountain pen. Shakespeare writes with a pen, but we don't say that Shakespeare's plays are written by the pen. It is written by another person.

Similarly, whatever you do is done by Him because there is only one central operation taking place in the whole cosmos. Due to egoism, isolation, and self-consciousness beyond limit, each one thinks that he or she is totally independent: I do. “I do. I am important.” Who are you? These kind of foolish ideas arise in the mind on account of separation of the parts that we are from the whole. If you shift your consciousness from this little part to the whole cosmos, and meditate on that intelligence superintending over the whole thing, you will never be reborn afterwards. You will be absorbed into the Supreme Being, and unending, infinite bliss you will enjoy.