Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

44. Earth-Shaking Thoughts

(Darshan given in November 1999)

Swamiji [to some visitors]: ...the crux of the whole matter. The world exists and acts due to an order received from the Centre of the cosmos. Nobody does anything. “I am going, I am coming, I am doing this” – these are all tall talks, no meaning. Nobody is doing anything. It is ordered by the Centre of the cosmos. If that order doesn't come, your finger also cannot lift. This finger cannot move unless the whole body orders: “Move!” But the body cannot say anything unless the physical elements of which the body is constituted also cooperate. The physical elements which constitute the world outside are the very same things which constitute our body. So we are inseparable from the physical world, though this idea cannot enter the mind of any person. “Oh, I am one with the world.”

When the substance of your body is identical with the substance of the world outside, what is the difference between you and the world? Then you are the world. Can you think for a minute that you are the world? “I am the cosmos. I am the universe.” You will cease to be a human being in one second. You will become a pressure-point of the cosmic power. You will dance with joy. You will not be sitting quiet like this. You will be so ecstatic even to know that this is the case. “Oh, I am the son of the Emperor of the universe.” If you know that, what will happen? “I am the son of the Emperor of the whole cosmos.” What problem you have got?

Visitors: No problem.

Swamiji: This is the highest kind of meditation that I am mentioning in a few words. Nobody is independent. Everybody is mutually interconnected. The cosmos is an organism of interconnected forces. Everything is everywhere. Do you read philosophy? You are welcome again. We shall talk about these things in more detail.

Visitor: Thank you, Swamiji.

Swamiji: These are all earth-shaking thoughts. Your thoughts will shake the whole earth.

Visitor: It's hard to imagine, Swamiji.

Swamiji: But once you catch it, then you will have no problem of any kind. The whole world will cooperate with you, and if the world cooperates with you, what problem have you got? Now we feel miserable because we feel that the world is neglecting us. It kicks us out, and we have no control over anything in the world. If this is the case, we are miserable mortals. But suppose the whole substance of the universe is impregnated into the very cells of your body. Oh, you will be a super man. It is not simply a super man – something more than that, a giant of the spirit. Let us talk about it another time. Now there is no time to talk like that. You will be thrilled simply. You will jump in joy. Saints and sages were dancing, dancing because the energy in them is so much they cannot control it. The energy is too much. “Oh, the whole world is dancing inside me!” The saints are not mad people. They are divine persons enshrining in themselves the power of the whole cosmos. So you become like that. Don't hesitate. If one can do that, another also can do that. God bless you. Hari Om.

[Later on]

A visitor: ...where everything is interrelated.

Swamiji: The substance of the world is consciousness.

Visitor: The substance of the world is consciousness. It is the I. And as it is described in the book I am reading, it is a mere intuition, something non-objective. How do we know about the Self? It said in the book it reveals itself. But if the Self is intuition, how can intuition reveal itself to intuition?

Swamiji: How do you know that you are sitting here?

Visitor: I don't think I know that I am sitting here, but I know that I am existing.

Swamiji: How do you know that you are sitting here?

Visitor: I assume so.

Swamiji: No, no. Assuming is not all right. It is called intuition.

Visitor: Intuition, yeah. And I have an intuition that is certain about my existence because I cannot think myself away.

Swamiji: If this consciousness of your being sure that you are existing here can be transferred to the whole universe, then you will be in a state of universal consciousness. That is another way of saying God-consciousness. Whatever you feel in yourself just now, transfer it to the cosmos, and widen it as far away as the skies and sun and moon and stars. You are the symbol of the cosmic awareness, and if you can expand it to the extent of infinitude, that is world-consciousness, universal-consciousness, cosmic-consciousness, or God-consciousness. But this requires meditation. Close your eyes and meditate like that. “My existence and my consciousness are integrally related to the existence and consciousness of the whole cosmos – organically related, and not separate. I am the cosmos; I am the universe. My existence is the existence of the cosmos. My consciousness is the consciousness of the whole universe.” Your consciousness is God-consciousness. If this conviction is driven into your mind, then you have reached the highest state of spirituality.

Visitor: Then I have to take your word on that. But how do I know for sure that it is so?

Swamiji: How do you know that you are existing?

Visitor: I know that I am existing because I cannot think myself away.

Swamiji: Same thing.

Visitor: But that is a different knowledge from knowing that I have to do meditation and I have to unify with the whole universe.

Swamiji: No, no. There is no difference. You are mixing up ideas.

Visitor: It requires a little more explanation.

Swamiji: You know that you are here. Why don't you feel that you are the whole universe? Close your eyes. The whole world is melting and going inside, like this.

The Brahmasutra is the final word in Vedanta. It is an annotation and interpretation of the Upanishads. The Upanishads and the Brahmasutra go together. You must study both of them, both of them. Very difficult books, not easy things to understand. Vedanta is the philosophy of the oneness of things. Everything is connected to everything else. Everything is related to anything. There are no two things. The whole universe is a living body. It is not dead matter. Matter does not exist. Everything is consciousness, scintillating in one level or the other. The density of consciousness in different levels makes us feel that something is a table, something is a cot, something is water, something is a mountain, etc., but actually they are different stages of the density of the expression of consciousness, which is universal in its nature.

Visitor: But I don't understand how to know that.

Swamiji: You know that you are here not by any means of knowing, but by self-identical existence and consciousness. Consciousness is existence, and consciousness is indivisible. You cannot cut consciousness into parts. Everywhere it is, and therefore, you are consciousness. You are not coming from Denmark; you are not coming from anywhere. You are just what you are. In an indefinable sense you are the infinite Being, you are the consciousness, and if you are consciousness, and consciousness cannot be divided into two parts – into subject and object – then you are the Infinite. Mighty thought! It will change your whole life. You will not be a Denmark man. You will be a universal man afterwards. You will not be even a man. You are a force, a power of the whole energy of the cosmos, concentrated in one particular spatiotemporal point. You are not a human being. You are a cosmic substance. The cosmic substance is not a human being. It is not man, it is not woman, it is not animal, it is not horse, it is nothing of the kind.

This requires deep meditation every day. Go on thinking, go on thinking, go on thinking: I am the universal Being. The existence of the universe is the existence of the consciousness, and my existence is my consciousness. My consciousness is my existence, and it is inseparable from the universal existence and universal consciousness because consciousness cannot be either subjective or objective. It is interrelated. Therefore, one Being is there. That is called God-consciousness.

Visitor: The One Being, the One that...

Swamiji: The One Being only, having one consciousness. It is just eternity, no process of time and space. Merely reading is not sufficient. You have to practise meditation.

Okay, I will see you another time. Hari Om!

Visitor: Thank you for your advice.