Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

23. An Exercise in Spiritual Meditation

(Darshan given in April 1999)

Swamiji: Attune your consciousness to the nature of God.

Visitor: How is that done?

Swamiji: There is no secret about it. It is a simple path. When you see somebody, you think of that person. Now, here, you will not think of anybody. You will think that All-pervading Being which includes everyone and everything, who emanated from that Being, including yourself. So there is no difficulty in attuning your mind to that Being because you are one of the emanations of that. The ray of the sun has no difficulty in uniting itself with the sun. So you are like the ray of the sun of God. You should not consider yourself as a human being. You are an energy centre of the cosmos, consciousness centralised in one location in space and time, which makes you feel that you are sitting here. Really, you are not sitting here. You are sitting in the centre of the cosmos.

This is an exercise in spiritual meditation. It requires purity of mind, absence of mortal desires, and determination: “I shall do it. I must. I shall achieve it.” This determination must be there in your mind. You should not say, “I shall try if it is possible or not possible.” Decide: “I have understood the point and I decide that today, at this moment, I gird up my loins for this great adventure.” Can you adjust your mind to this great adventurous project?

Visitor: I cannot say.

Swamiji: You must say, “Yes, I can do it.” You can do it. It will be possible. This is the secret of meditation.

[Later on]

Swamiji: As the cloth is an illusion produced by the crisscrossing of threads, so the world also is an illusion because it is dependent upon the various entities crossing each other and producing a phenomenon as if they are existing.

The Ganga River doesn't exist for even one minute. Every minute it is different. You can take a bath there, but every second it flows. So when it flows, it doesn't exist afterwards. But it is replenished by another flow, and that keeps the mind contemplating as if it is solidly existing. It is like the flame of a lamp, which is a kind of gas that is burning. Every second it is changing, changing, changing, and it is a flow. The lamplight is not an existent thing. It is a flow, and anything that flows is not ultimately real. This is the case with everybody and everything else. The whole world is phenomenal, including all of us.

A visitor: When we're in the desert and we see a mirage and it looks like water, we see the mirage; but the thinking that it is the water is our superimposition from the mind. But the mirage actually is there.

Swamiji: 'Superimposition' means the perceptive consciousness gets tricked by the vibrations created between the sand particles and the rays of the sun. It is a total misconception of the ocular. Our eyes cannot catch the relationship between sunlight and the sand particles. Even animals run after the water there.

A visitor: Yes. But they do see the mirage, but the water is not there.

Swamiji: So everything is there that you are seeing, but nothing is there really speaking. Finally, you are duped by all perception.

Visitor: Yes, Swamiji.

[Later on]

Swamiji [to a visitor]: The search for God is religion, and you may search for God in any way you like. Since God is everywhere and He is almost everything, so you can apply any method. As all roads lead to Rome, they say, so all religions lead to one God. It is the urge of the soul to reach the Almighty that is religion. It has nothing to do with Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and all that. They are all unnecessary names. The soul of every person is the same. There is no Hindu soul, Christian soul, Muslim soul, and so on. It is an impersonal power inside which is struggling to reach up to the source from where it has come – the soul within rising up with all its might and main to reach the Universal Soul. The individualised soul trying to reach to the Universal Soul, this is religion, and no other qualification is necessary. Your whole being should rise up. Not only the sense organs, not the mind, but the entire soul, the entire being of yours should be lifted up to the Universal Existence, the soul of God Himself.

There should not be any distraction, and you should not want anything else afterwards. No 'but' and 'if' and all that – you should not put anything. It is simply soul rising like a rocket to the great Absolute Being. This is the basis of religion. Then for practical purposes you are doing some rituals, reading books, and all that.

Another visitor: How can a sadhaka be strong while at the same time have humility?

Swamiji: What is the difficulty in having humility? Be humble and simple. Why are you finding difficulty in being humble? Be a simple man. Do namaskar to everybody and ask them, “May I be of any service to you?” And when there is a conference going on, don't sit in the front seat. That is egoism. You go and sit behind, where people keep shoes. There you sit – humble. So don't interfere with anybody. Consider yourself as the last person, and then you will be the first person in heaven. He who is last here will be the first there. He who is first here will be the last there. This is what Christ has said. Don't show egoism. No egoism. I am the smallest, humblest servant of God. What other question you have got?

Visitor: He has a hard time to distinguish that from weakness, in a sense, Swamiji. Strength and humility, how do they go together?

Swamiji: If you have no mortal desires, earthly longings, then the moral strength automatically rises. You should not crave for things which will perish, which are illusions, which are temptations, which are good for nothing. You should have discrimination in understanding: These things are not going to benefit me. Reject them. And simultaneously, as I told him, your mind should soar up to God Almighty.

Another visitor: My main practice, Swamiji, is japa.

Swamiji: Very good. It is a potent means of sadhana.

Visitor: What will help me...?

Swamiji: Chanting, reciting the name of God. The name should be of such a thing, beyond which there is nothing. You should not consider a lower category of God. You should not suspect there is something higher than that. Then we don't want the lower one. Take the name of that which is the highest conceivable thing in your mind, and that will benefit you.