Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1995

by Swami Krishnananda

6. Physics and Yoga

(Darshan given on May 16th, 1995.)

A visitor: Is there a law of creativity?

Swamiji: That point is the original bindu, the origin of creation.

Visitor: Unless that point is there, nothing is there.

Swamiji: That point is inside you. That is the whole point [laughter].

There is a small book which contains only 72 pages – a very wonderfully written book: The Universe and Dr. Einstein. It is written by Lincoln Barnett. Everybody should read it. In only 72 pages he has given the essence of the entire modern physics. Finally he comes to the conclusion that the observer cannot observe the universe unless he observes himself first, and this observer is the universe itself, so the observation of the universe is nothing but the universe observing itself. This is a wonderful conclusion of modern physics. It is just like the Upanishad.

Does God see the world or not? Does God see the world, or does He not see it? This answer will be applied to other answers also. God has said, “I am only Myself.” If you say that God sees the world, He is seeing something other than Himself. But if you say He is seeing Himself, there is no such thing as seeing Himself. The idea itself has no meaning. You can see yourself because you have got eyes and a body, but God has no such eyes and body, so He will not see Himself. The answer has no meaning. So every activity becomes a kind of self-contradiction, and it cannot be explained by anybody. Generally, what people do is they bypass that question and make it appear that everything is clear.

Another visitor: I am thinking how to get business for my company so that I can carry on working in my company.

Swamiji: My dear friend, are you not thinking something by which you can become a better person? Let the company be all right. You do hard work for the company, there is no objection, but do you take care of yourself? The difficulty arises because when I say to take care of yourself, you do not know what I mean by this 'yourself'.

Visitor: Then what is it, Swamiji? I want to know that, how to take care of myself. What is the Self? What is it that I have to take care of?

Swamiji: When you say “I have to do a lot of work”, this word 'I' you have used, is it the physical body that is doing a lot of work?

Visitor: Both mental and physical.

Swamiji: Is it the mind that is doing hard work or is it the body that is doing hard work?

Visitor: Both.

Swamiji: If the mind doesn't work, the body cannot work, so it is the mind only, finally.

Visitor: If I have to see some client, it is the body which is carrying me.

Swamiji: Therefore, you have to feed the mind as much as you feed the body. What kind of food are you giving to the mind? Doing hard work for some company is not a mental food. It is only an appurtenance for your physical existence. So what diet are you giving to your mind?

Visitor: That is why I have come to you for the diet. I want to know what it is that I should do.

Swamiji: You have come just now, and you are going back after lunch, so what can I do for you? Anyway, I will tell you. You have God's blessing, without which you would not have come and sat here. The fact that you came even for a few minutes and said something, whatever it be, and breathed the air of this place, shows that you have some divine blessing. I don't want to tell too many things now because you are very busy and you have to go back.

In order to discipline the mind, the material that is required is the mind itself. There are two types of mind: the lower involved mind, and the higher universal mind. The universal mind is the tool that has to be utilised for the sake of controlling and disciplining the lower mind. Actually, this last sentence that I uttered is called yoga practice. There is a universal, all-comprehending mind, and that is operating through you also, without which you will not be existing here. And also you have got an individualised mind, which is the troublemaker. That has to be disciplined by the application of the power coming from the higher mind, which is the universal mind. This is called the practice of yoga, and there is nothing else that is necessary for you. How it can be done is a matter to think over.  Then all the things that you need will come automatically because you need not have to exert individually; the cosmic mind will take care of you.

Visitor: Does it involve reading…

Swamiji: No, it does not involve anything. It involves only thought. Reading, etc., is only a preparatory stage for that. Finally, all education is the way to disciplining the mind in a particular manner. You can read lots of books, but the purpose is the disciplining of the mind. When that is achieved then no reading is necessary, and no doing of anything is necessary afterwards.

Let it take its own time, but anyway I have sown the seed for some thought in your mind which will make you feel that something is ahead still.

Another visitor: Great men all say that they are the littlest, the smallest.

Swamiji: That is because they have got so much bigness that they are losing nothing by saying they are small. They are only expressing a negative type of humility because they are so big. It is like an elephant saying, “I am a small person; I have no strength or anything.” It knows very well its strength, and if you go near it you will see what happens.

A person who is not really big, who is a small fry, is unhappy, but a person who has really risen to the top loses nothing by saying he is small. He can crouch before a child, but he knows very well he is a big man. It is a humility born of greatness, not humility born of helplessness. They are two different things. A helpless man also looks very humble, and a great man can be humble, but they are two different things.

Visitor: I want to become a great man.

Swamiji: Do you know the meaning of greatness?

Visitor: Being humble.

Swamiji: No, being humble doesn't mean being great. Humble people are not always great people. You yourself know what you mean by a great person.

Visitor: To overcome anger, fear, etc.

Swamiji: If a person never gets angry at any time, it doesn't mean he is a great man. Something else is there. Some status arises from his own self. An elephant is very great in strength though it is not humble and sitting quiet, not getting angry. These qualities don't apply to it. You are stunned by seeing an elephant. You look at it again and again. It has no other quality except greatness as such. The ocean is very great. People are simply stunned by looking at the ocean. Greatness is a quality by itself, and it does not come due to other qualities.

It is difficult to describe it, just as you cannot describe what light is. Tell me, what is the meaning of light? You cannot say what light is. Light is light only, that's all. What is sweetness? Sweetness is like sweetness only. You cannot compare it with anything else.

Another visitor: What is law? Is it made by man?

Swamiji: How can law control human beings when they themselves made it? So there is something else behind this apparent phenomenon that law is made by man. It is not made by man. It exists by itself as, to remember Plato of Greece, ideas exist prior to the individual who entertains that idea. This is a very important matter to remember, and it is not easy to catch the point. How can ideas exist prior to the person who entertains the ideas? Likewise, law exists prior to the making of it.