The Entire Universe is Meditating

by Swami Krishnananda

The Entire Universe is Meditating

(Spoken on August 8th, 2000)

“I have to do so much work. I have to do so much work.” You should not say like that. The work is yourself only. You yourself are moving, as it were, outside, in the form of activity. Meditation also is only an activity of your own self, which is another way of saying your soul is moving in the form of a concentration. Very difficult to think such things.

The whole world is just meditation only. The entire universe is doing meditation. Everybody is meditating. The sun is meditating, moon is meditating, mountains and rivers are meditating, because meditation is the consciousness of one's own Self. Consciousness of one's own Self, deeply embedded in it, that is meditation.

Meditation does not mean thinking something outside. It is thinking itself only. You find yourself wherever you are. If it is Rishikesh, you are in Rishikesh even now. You need not have to move around. Rishikesh will come here. You need not have to search for things. The things will come here because there is no distance. We are bothered about the distance between one place and another place. That distance is ruled out. The moment consciousness thinks, immediately it is there. That is the power of thought. Immediately it manifests itself, not tomorrow – now, just now. When God thinks, it takes place, and we are also like that only. We are moving towards that condition. We need not be afraid of anything – no fear. Fear is caused by the separation of ourselves from what we see, without actually finding ourselves in that object.

When we meditate, the mind jumps here and there. Why should the mind jump? You have chosen some objective for meditation, and it has been properly chosen with the intention that it is the best of things, and you cannot move away from the best of things because there cannot be anything better than the best; and if it moves to something else, then this 'something else' is the better than the best. There is some confusion in the mind. All right, if the best is not satisfying, there is another thing, so meditate on that. If that also is not satisfying, and it moves to a third thing, meditate on that also. Like that if you go on roving, you will find that you are meditating on the whole universe.

I have no problem. I consider everything is clear, and neat and clean. When you think as God thinks, nobody can harm you. But you should not think like a mortal – a person from Orissa, one from Bombay. You are not from Bombay or anywhere. You are from eternity, the dimensionless existence, and that cannot be shaken by anybody. That 'anybody' is included in that. That which causes the fear is also included in that thing which you are contemplating. You have become the tiger itself, so the tiger will not jump on you. You are the tiger. But it requires very great courage to think like that. And you must have the confidence: “If I need anything, it will come.” “Oh, I am a poor man. I have no money. Nobody cares.” You should not complain like that. “I am not a poor man. The whole universe is my friend. If I want anything, all the planets will come together and serve me here.” That confidence must be there.

But we are faithless. We cannot have faith in even the truth of things. All the ten planets will come here. In the Yoga Vasishtha it is said: “Varuna will inundate your garden, Vayu will sweep your floor, Indra will come and serve you food.” Such a thing is possible. You think it is a story, but it is not like that. When you are hungry, Indra will come. When Yudhisthira prayed to Sun, Sun came down with a pot. Can you imagine such a thing? You pray to Surya; let us see whether he brings a pot with inexhaustible food in it. It shatters the brain of a human being. We are thinking Surya is so far away. He is touching our nose even now. Distance doesn't exist. Can you imagine? A pot of food, Surya comes down with it and gives.

Yajnavalkya prayed for a new Veda. He prayed to Surya. Surya gave him a fresh Veda. It is called Yajurveda, Shukla Yajurveda. Sage Agastya told Rama, “Pray to Surya because it is a crucial moment for you.” Ravana was invincible. That is called Aditya Hridayam. “Recite it.” And his energy increased. See the power of the Sun. Do you think it is a mumbali, every day we are seeing some stupid thing in the sky? This is not the way of looking at it. The Sun is not a stupid thing. It is a god himself. Sūrya ātmā jagatastasthuṣaśca (R.V. 1.115.1): “He is the soul of everything that moves and everything that does not move.” But your mind is not accepting it: He is very far away, 93 million miles away. As I mentioned, there is no distance, and therefore, it is not 93 million miles away. It is just here only: sūrya ātmā jagatastasthuṣaśca. It is in the Rigveda, the Surya Sukta. Sūrya ātmā: “He is the Self.” He is the soul of everything that is existing, moving or not moving. Therefore, there is no distance. And when the distance goes, he doesn't take time to come here.

Yoga practice is not an easy thing. It is not chanting something and going on getting fatigued of it. It is your being in the thing that you do. You must be present in the thing which you do. That is called divine karma yoga. And you must be present in the thing that you worship. When you worship in the temple, you are not simply moving the hand. You are yourself present in that process, and that is called nyasa. Anganyasa, karanyasa, and all that, we do.

That is, when you worship the God, you worship the presence of God's limbs in your own limbs: shirshay svaha, and all this. His head is my head, His eyes are my eyes, His ears are my ears, His hands are my hands. Oh, do you know what will happen? Narayana's head is my head, His eyes are my eyes, His ears are my ears, His hands are my hands, His stomach is my stomach. You shudder by going on thinking like this. A person who worships in the temple is not an ordinary pujari. He is not a money monger. He is a divinity itself. It is not some worship done to somebody by somebody. This idea must go away. It is God thinking Himself in the great worship that you perform. You have to become that which you are worshiping.

Sri Krishna knew that he was himself the mountain; otherwise, who will lift the mountain? He himself became the mountain and lifted the whole thing. He is lifting himself only. The elephant can lift itself, but nobody else can, from outside, lift the elephant because it is very heavy. But for the elephant it is not heavy because its soul and body are identical there. So Krishna lifted the mountain, they say – Govardhan Dhari. But he has not lifted it from another instrument. He himself became the mountain. The mountain opened the mouth and ate everything. It was he himself.

So no problem. Be happy. A thing that you are thinking is yourself only. Even if it be God Almighty Himself, you are thinking yourself only, and therefore it has to come immediately because there is no space and no time. So be blessed.