Swami Krishnananda's Philosophy

by Swami Krishnananda

(Darshan given in March 1990.)

A visitor: Could you tell me something about your philosophy?

Swamiji: My philosophy is a new outlook and new interpretation, a new suggestiveness and a new way of looking at it. Everything is there, but I look at it with another eye. That way of looking is my philosophy. You are sitting, he is sitting, so many are sitting here. A photographic camera can also see all these people, but I don’t see them as a photographic camera sees. Do you know the difference? It simply sees some heads, and click, a photo of a group of people comes. But I am not a photographic camera. My eyes are not a film made of photographic material. It is an interpretation, it is an understanding and a valuation, a harmonisation, and so many things are involved in it.

And also, I have tried my best in whatever I say or write to present things in a manner suitable at the same time to the ancient world and the modern world. Sometimes when you speak in modern terms, it is deviating from the ancient tradition. Sometimes when you talk in ancient terms, it may deviate from the modern requirement. I have not done that. Neither have I deviated from the modern way of thinking, nor have I been ultra-modern in my thinking. I have gone even as far as modern physics, but I have not deviated from the ancient tradition of the Vedas and Upanishads also. How did I do that? They look like two opposite things, like the North Pole and South Pole.

There is a compartmentalisation in traditional outlook, but I have brought them together in a state of blending, not merely as two brothers of a single father, but as two limbs of a single body. Two brothers are two different persons, but two limbs are not two different persons. This was my attempt, and I have put a stamp on this new outlook of mine in the essays that I wrote recently [Essays in Life and Eternity]. If you have not read those essays, you will not make out much meaning of what I am thinking in my mind. In this new book, which is Essays in Life and Eternity, I have brought into focus the attention on a single point of both the ancient and the modern. The most ancient and the most modern, both these things have been brought together in the essays. So you have to read this book at least ten times. Then you will know something about how I am accustomed to thinking.

I never come in clash with any idea, I never disagree with anybody’s opinions, I never condemn any person, and I never say one religion is superior to another. So these are some things peculiar about me, and in many people you will not find it. They will always say, “This is inferior, this is not correct.” I will not say that. This is correct from one angle of vision. If you see from one angle of vision, you will see that everything is correct. If you see from another angle of vision, it doesn’t look all right, so it is up to you to find out from what angle of vision you are seeing. If you see a mountain directly, it looks very sloping, and if you go to the top of it, you will find it is like a lump, and if you go to the other side of it, you will find a flat surface. Now, what is the mountain like? Is it a precipice or is it a lump or is it level ground on top? You can say it is all those things, so you should not be like the blind man in the story of the elephant. All are correct, but relatively, conditionally, from certain angles of vision only.

My point of view is that you have to be a friend of the whole creation of the world. You should not be an enemy of anybody. There is nothing that you dislike. You like all things. Inasmuch as God Almighty, who has created this world, may not be disliking anything that He has created, you too have no business to dislike anything that God has created. We should not be thinking that we are wiser than God. We are trying to set right the world that God has created, as if He has made a blunder in creating this world. This idea should be shed by a spiritual seeker. If you want to see the world properly, you have to see it with the eyes of God, and you will find that everything is perfect and shining like gold, and heavenly ambrosia is dropping from the skies. You will never make a complaint. This is my philosophy.

Another visitor: I have a peculiar predicament. My predicament is that my Guru is dead, and I am not happy with his successor.

Swamiji: You need not go to the successor. Who asked you to go to him? You create problems unnecessarily by going to something which is of no use to you. Who asked you to go there?

Visitor: Only myself.

Swamiji: You need not go there. Then you are happy.

Visitor: Sometimes I am, sometimes I am not.

Swamiji: Why are you not? Tell me the reason.

Visitor: There is so much show. There are so many things which are not truly in my understanding of spiritual life.

Swamiji: What is lacking is your understanding only, and there is nothing wrong with the world. Your understanding of the world is insufficient, and your connection with the world also is not clear to you. Something is wrong with you only, and not with the world.

Visitor: So the world is perfect as it is?

Swamiji: The world is perfectly all right. It is a round ball, beautiful. God has created a heaven, but we have made it a hell by our own misconceived notions.

Visitor: What is my position in the universe?

Swamiji: You are internally connected with the whole creation of the universe, and therefore you are not standing somewhere separately. You are not living in a country, you are living in the whole space-time complex which God has created, so that your connection is with every little atom in the cosmos, with heaven itself. Everything is connected with you, so you cannot have a separate predicament. Your predicament is involved in a total predicament of the cosmos, so you cannot say ‘my predicament’. It does not exist. The moment you say ‘my predicament’ you are isolating yourself from the cosmos and imagining that you are an independent person, which you are not. So the whole mistake is in your understanding of your position, and there is nothing wrong with things. The moment you understand the internal connection of yours with the whole set up, the power of the cosmos will enter you. Now it won’t enter because you say, “I am outside.” The universe says, “You consider me as outside. Then I will not talk to you.”

Visitor: So I have to make an effort to be in tune.

Swamiji: In tune. If the hand is to lift, it has to receive sustenance from the whole body. If the hand says it is independent, the energy of the body will not flow to the hand. Then it will fall. You cannot lift a finger until the energy of the whole body flows through it. So also you cannot do anything in this world until the universal force enters into you. You are not even a human being. You are a cosmic force condensed in one form due to some reason; you are placed in the situation of cosmic involvement, and you are not an independent person, nor can you do an independent activity. Provided you know this, the world will support you, and the whole universal force will enter into you. Keep it in mind.