Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

22. The Power of Surya Bhagavan

(Darshan given in April 1999)

Swamiji: God is supreme beness. He is only be. He is isness, thatness, suchness, whichness. All these words are used to describe that Absolute Being. In Buddhist terminology, sometimes it is called thatness or suchness or whichness because words fail here. It is That as it is in itself, not as it is perceived, conceived by somebody else. It is not God as you conceive Him, but God as He is in Himself prior to creation. What can be that kind of thing? That is such, that, which. People use all kinds of words because it is impossible to use any language. You will falter completely.

A visitor: In your book you mentioned that the object of meditation... Philosophical thought is not an object of meditation, yet...

Swamiji: The object of meditation itself is meditating. You are not meditating. You can reverse the order. If what you call the object of meditation itself starts meditating on you, what will be the position? You are not meditating on it. It is meditating on you. The object has become the subject. You become the subsequent; that is the precedent. So you are reversing the whole order, and that which you are thinking of is itself thinking of you. It is a very great circus exercise of the mind.

You are seeing the mountain, but can you believe the mountain is seeing you? Endow the mountain with mind – and actually it has a mind, which we don't agree with. If the mountain thinks of you, what will it feel about you? That is your real nature. What the great Sun in the sky is thinking about you, that is your real nature. What will the Sun be thinking about you just now? It is the great master of the entire solar system, and you cannot deny that the Sun has consciousness. It is consciousness. What will he be thinking about you? Frightening! You would like to melt away immediately. You won't exist.

Very carefully you have to go. A sudden jump is not possible. Very great effort is necessary. You have many desires. Question yourself: Have I got any desire? It pertains to the things of this world. It may be even a pinhead, a tiny thing – you want it. Or you say there is no need for it. The thing on which you are contemplating, or the thing which contemplates you, is such an inclusive thing that all the pinheads and all the glories and magnificences are included in it. So the complaint that the mind is distracted and moving here and there has no point. The mind cannot go here and there because it is the mind that is thought of by that which wrongly you think is the one that you think of.

[Later on]

Swamiji: This one matchstick can burn all the haystack of unnecessary thoughts in the mind. The matchstick is your capacity to sit quiet and contemplate the great Creator of the whole cosmos. Even if it be for one minute, it will do you good because the matchstick can burn in one minute the whole haystack. This is what I want to tell you. All the problems may be destroyed by one single attempt at this supreme thought that must arise in your mind. Your mind should adjust yourself to think this: Beyond the universe, beyond sun and moon and stars, beyond space and time there is a mighty being with millions of heads, millions of eyes, millions of arms, Visvarupa.

Sarvadharmānparityajya māmekaṃ śaraṇaṃ vraja, ahaṃ tvā sarvapāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ (B.G. 18.66): “Think of Me, and I destroy the sins.” The question arises: Can an action done be destroyed without allowing it to produce an effect? Sin is the effect produced by some action. Now Bhagavan Sri Krishna is saying, “If you think of Me, I shall destroy the effect of any action that you have done.” Can this be done? How Lord Krishna is making some statements like that? Nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ (B.G. 2.16): That which exists cannot be destroyed. That which does not exist need not be destroyed. Sin either exists or it does not exist. If it exists, it cannot be destroyed. If it does not exist, no need of destroying it. So what is it Krishna is telling? “I destroy all the papa.” Very moot point. It is not ordinary. Commentators don't say anything. It is like fire speaking. Before fire you should not bring any unnecessary argument. It will burn all the arguments. Like that is Surya mantra.

Citraṃ devānāmudagādanīkaṃ cakṣurmitrasya varuṇasyāgneḥ, āprā dyāvāpṛthivī antarikṣaṃ sūrya ātmā jagatastasthuṣaśca (R.V. 1.115.01). All papam and darkness, everything will be destroyed by the Sun. The shakti of the Sun, nobody knows. It is not a magnetic light that is coming to us. It is a spiritual force. There is nothing that you cannot find in the Sun – all values, all treasures. The Earth has come from the Sun, very important to remember. A chip of the Sun shot off by some reason, and flaming mass was revolving. Millions and millions of years afterwards the flame... And for it to come down and cool down and become water and earth, how many millions have passed? Nobody knows. Now this Earth produces every kind of foodstuff. Annātpuruṣaḥ, the Taittiriya Upanishad says.  Tasmādvā etasmādātmana ākāśaḥ sambhūtaḥ ākāśādvāyuḥ vāyoragniḥ agnerāpaḥ adbhyaḥ pṛthivī pṛthivyā oṣadhayaḥ oṣadhībhyonnam annātpuruṣaḥ  (T.U. 2.1). So this physical body is made up of anna only – food. But where is it coming from? Now I don't go into the philosophical side of it.

You have got rice, you have got wheat, you have got barley, you have got mango, you have got jackfruit, you have got bananas. What do you not have on the earth? And there are jewels, sapphires, all this under the earth. From where has this come? It has come from that from where Earth has come. So the Surya must be a repository of everything in a highly potentised homeopathic dose. Millions and millions of high potency dose of mangoes are there. Can you imagine that? Surya can give anything. Mahashakti, Mahashakti.

Yajnavalkya was a disciple of Vaisampayana. Vaisampayana was a great Brahmanishtha Guru. These Maharishis joined together and did a yajna, and they invited all the Brahmanishtha Gurus. They put a condition: If any does not attend, he will incur brahma-dosam. This Vaisampayana could not attend. He got brahma-dosam. Then he told all his disciplies, “Please do tapasya on my behalf. You see, brahma-dosam has come on me.” All the disciples sat. Yajnavalkya was one. “I will do everything,” he said. “I will do tapasya for all the brahma-dosam to go.” The Guruji got angry. “Ahankar too much you have got. I am telling everybody. Why one man? It is boasting too much. Give all that back to me, whatever I have given to you.” He had given him Taittiriya Samhita. “I vomit it,” he said, and he vomited it in the form of a black blood or something like that. Titri birds came and ate it. Therefore, that which was vomited out, that is called Krishna Yajurveda, and titri birds ate it. Now Yajnavalkya did not want anymore to stay with that Guru. He prayed to the Sun, “Give me fresh Yajurveda, not that which I vomited.” Surya Bhagavan came in the form of a horse and recited the Shukla Yajurvedam. He received it. The Isavasyam is a part of it. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is also a part of it. What power, Surya!

When the Pandavas were starving in the forest and had no food, Dhaumya, the Guru of Pandavas, said, “Pray to the Sun.” Sun came with a pot: “This pot will give you inexhaustible food. You cook food, and take as much as you want. It will never get exhausted. Only if Draupadi eats it, then afterwards it will be exhausted.” Now I am just mentioning the power of Surya Bhagavan.

Mahashakti is the repository of Gayatri mantra – Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat saviturvareṇyaṃ, bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt: “Our mind be directed in the right direction.” He is the god of the Gayatri mantra. Rishi Vishvamitra received it, but it came actually from Surya. This bharga is nothing but the power of the destruction of sins, which is in the great god Surya Pratyaksha Devata. He is the visible God in the universe. Narayana is shining here.