Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

48. The Cosmic Mind

(Darshan given in December 1999)

Swamiji [to a visitor]: You don't know even the fundamentals, and now you are asking a question to me. You tell me, where is the mind sitting? In the leg, in the hand? Where it is? Where it is?

Visitor: They say it is everywhere.

Swamiji: Where is everywhere? In the tree outside? Is your mind sitting in the tree?

Visitor: No.

Swamiji: Then why are you saying 'everywhere'? Your sentences must be very clear. If it is everywhere, it will be in the mountain also. Is your mind sitting in the mountain?

Visitor: No.

Swamiji: Then where is it?

Visitor: Inside me. I don't know.

Swamiji: Wherever God is, there the mind also is. And where is God?

Visitor: He is everywhere.

Swamiji: Then mind is also everywhere. It is not sitting in your brain or anything, though you wrongly think like that. An all-pervading mind is called Cosmic Mind, which is the same as the mind of God. Can you imagine such a thing? Can you imagine a mind that is everywhere?

Visitor: Yes.

Swamiji: Can you concentrate on that?

Visitor: It is very difficult.

Swamiji: Then if you do that you will be having no rebirth afterwards. You won't take another birth. You will attain the Supreme Being.

Visitor: But how can mind be transcended through mind itself?

Swamiji: Mind is not concentrating on mind.

Visitor: No, transcended.

Swamiji: Why do you want to transcend? You should not transcend it because mind is concentrating on Cosmic Mind, and when you concentrate on the Cosmic Mind, the individual mind is automatically transcended. When you get a large salary, your poverty is transcended automatically.

Can you imagine that the mind is everywhere, God's mind?

Visitor: With practice we can concentrate.

Swamiji: It takes one second to practise, only you must have willpower. When you understand a thing, you are able to handle it also. Cosmic Mind is the mind of God, and your mind also is inside that, so where are you sitting now. at this moment? Where are you? You are all pervading. You are not in Aligarh or something. Very serious matter this is.

Visitor: So where is maya situated then?

Swamiji: Maya? There is no maya. It doesn't exist at all. It is a kind of hobgoblin.

Visitor: So there is no serpent, there is only the rope.

Swamiji: I see only the rope. I can't see any serpent. And it looks like a serpent by a mistake in the eyes – like a rainbow. There's no such thing called rainbow; it doesn't exist. Due to a perceptional defect we mix up the sky with the curvature of the earth and it looks like a bow, but it doesn't exist at all. If you go near it, you will find nothing there. It is like the horizon appearing to touch the earth. From here you look at Lakshmanjhula. It looks as if the horizon is touching the ground. When you go there, it is not touching. It is an illusion.

Visitor: What is the meaning of the word Narayana?

Swamiji: Why are you unnecessarily putting questions? I told you the Cosmic Mind is including Narayana also. The Cosmic Mind itself is Narayana. You can call him Rudra, Siva, Devi, anything. Why are you calling names unnecessarily? The Cosmic Mind is God, ultimately. It is the mind of God, which is another way of saying God Himself, and you can call that mind by any name you like. Because human beings think of human beings only, so you want a framework of a large human being: Narayana or Siva, Viratsvarupa. They are all names of the Cosmic Being only, or Cosmic Mind, or Cosmic Consciousness.

These are all high meditational techniques. It is a question of a little willpower, that's all. People walk on the wire in a circus. Can you walk on a wire? But how they walk? They have got some balancing technique, balancing technique.

Visitor: Concentration.

Swamiji: Terrible concentration. That kind of concentration is necessary for meditation. Because we are attached to this body so much that we can never imagine what is Cosmic Mind. But by effort you can find out what it is. It is a larger development of your own personality. You have exceeded your limits of personality in that Cosmic Universality so that you have become the Universal Being. How joyful it is to think like that! “I am the Universal Being. I am not from Aligarh.” This idea must go away. There is no Aligarh, no earth also, no sun, moon, stars. Everything is inside this one mighty expanse of Cosmic Consciousness. Actually, you are not thinking it. You are inside that only. That is another subtle thing.

Hari Om. Namaskar. God bless you.