Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

32. Everything Is Living

(Darshan given in June 1999)

Swamiji: The whole universe is filled with life. Everything is living. Everywhere you see the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, trees and leaves, even up to the ant, little small thing. Even a sand particle, they are all alive. Just as you can see them, they can see you. That means there is only seer. There is no object that is seen, because that object that is seen is also seeing you. So there is only perception – consciousness of self. Nobody is an object. There are no objects in the world. That which you consider as an object just because it is outside you, will also consider you as an object because you are outside it. So there are no objects.

What is life? You asked me what is life. Life is consciousness of existence, consciousness of self-existence. You are aware that you are existing. This is the principle of life. And everyone is like that. Everybody is conscious of one's own existence. Therefore, the whole universe is alive.

A visitor: What is afterwards? You are conscious, but what is afterwards? I don't know.

Swamiji: You are conscious of yourself. Are you not conscious of yourself? Are you aware that you are sitting here?

Visitor: Yes, sure, but afterwards, the next world.

Swamiji: What is afterwards?

Visitor: I don't know. After death.

Swamiji: What are you asking?

Visitor: You say we are conscious for our lives today, for our body, for our mind, for our consciousness; now we are living, but afterwards when our body is dead – our soul, what about it?

Swamiji: Your body may be dead but your consciousness cannot die.

Visitor: I don't know. I'm not sure.

Swamiji: You must know. Now you must start knowing it.

Visitor: How can I know it?

Swamiji: Because if consciousness also dies, there must be another consciousness to know that consciousness is dying. Otherwise, who will know that it is dying?

Visitor: Who can prove it?

Swamiji: I am proving it by argument. Unless there is a consciousness that knows that consciousness is dying, nobody can know that consciousness is dying. How do you know that consciousness is dying? By another consciousness.

Another visitor: We lost our dearest. We want to contact them, the soul of our dearest, in death.

Swamiji: Why do you want to contact? What is the purpose?

Visitor: I miss them. I want their advice. I want to talk to them. I want to tell them something. How can I do it? How can I contact them?

Swamiji: It is not good to contact dead people. It will not benefit you.

Another visitor: I have one question I want to ask her. Did these people die a natural death or were they killed?

Visitors: No, natural death. They were ill and they died. So how can we know their consciousness is looking at us, seeing us, dealing with us? How can we do it? How can we know it? How can we feel it?

Swamiji: You have to stay here one year.

Visitor: One year, and then?

Swamiji: And then you will know everything. We will test you, test. You know what is testing? You are speaking like an ordinary person, but you are not made up of an ordinary person. You are something greater than what you are, which is buried by your engagements in the world. You should not ask questions like that in one minute. You stay one year, then your mind will develop like this, slowly, slowly, slowly. You will see light everywhere afterwards. Now you are seeing nothing.

[Later on]

Swamiji: Serving others...

A visitor: Is serving yourself.

Swamiji: You are also one of the others, so you should not use the word 'others'. Say 'serving people'. Do not use the word 'others'. There are no others in this world. There are only people, and you are one of the people. Therefore, you are serving everybody, including yourself. You are serving the totality of humanity, including yourself, which is another way of saying the totality of living beings, not only humanity. That means you are serving the whole cosmos, which is the body of God. Virtually it means serving God Himself. If this idea has entered you, then there is no problem.

[Later on]

Swamiji: The nearer you go to a thing, the more difficult it becomes. From a distance only you must see things. See the painting here – how nice. But you should not strike your nose on that picture. Then you will not see anything. The nearest thing is the most difficult thing and, unfortunately, the nearest thing is yourself. Therefore, you cannot know it easily. You can know the stars, mountains, everything; you can know the whole world, but you cannot know yourself.

A visitor: That's the most important thing, to know oneself.

Swamiji: Nobody can know that, because there are no means of knowing. Every knowing requires a kind of means, and you yourself are the thing that is to be known, and you yourself are the thing that knows. There is a difficulty in how you will employ any means of knowing. There are no means of any kind by which you can know yourself.

Visitor: It's just not possible.

Swamiji: It is possible if you melt your sense organs, your sense organs. Melt your mind, and try to think through the whole cosmic mind. You should not think like a British man. Think through the Universal mind. You are not existing at all. You have been washed off into the ocean of cosmic stuff. Widen your mind. Feel that you are as wide as the whole universe. Very important. Feel that you are as wide as the whole universe. You are not a little gentleman coming from someplace, and not a gentleman that goes somewhere. You are neither going anywhere, nor you have come from anywhere. That is a wrong idea. That idea that the mind should be melted down into liquid and made to flow with the Universal mind – you must think like the Universal mind only. You have no name, you have no form, you have no friends, you have no enemies, nothing afterwards.

Visitor: What happens when I see things, like a picture or a person, that take my attention? Do I not...

Swamiji: That means you are not meditating at that time.

Visitor: No.

Swamiji: All the problems will be solved by identifying yourself with the cosmos. This is the highest kind of meditation. But it is a difficult thing. The mind is like a naughty child. It won't listen. Children cry, cry, cry, cry. For unnecessary things they cry. They want some sugar candy, and the mother will not give it for some reason. The children will crawl and go near a precipice and want to fall down there. The mother will pull them back. It cries, “Why are you pulling me?” This is what is happening to us. The mind wants to go to the universal expanse but it says, “No, I will be inside the body only.” Great tenacity and persuasiveness...

Visitor: Just a small example. If even sitting in meditation I sometimes get pain in knee because I'm not beyond body consciousness, what do I do?

Swamiji: You sit in any other posture. Why do you sit like that?

Visitor: I usually sit cross-legged.

Swamiji: There is no prescription like that. Whichever is the convenient posture... You can even lie down, no objection. Stretch your legs and lie down. What is necessary is ease, relaxation. There is no compulsion to sit in one posture. Then meditate at that time. You can even lie down, no objection, if that is the proper posture.