Facets of Spirituality

by Swami Krishnananda

Compiled by S. Bhagyalakshmi

December 23, 1978

About ten people, mostly foreigners, were present at the start of the morning darshan. Revered Swamiji welcomed them.

A visitor: What is the cause of our perception of change? Is it purely physical, and, therefore, pertaining to the body, or is it due to the structure of the mind?

Swamiji: Changes are both perceivable and not perceivable due to the mind and the body.

Visitor: Are they interdependent?

Swamiji: Yes.

Visitor: How to overcome this interdependence?

Swamiji: Interdependence of the body and the mind can be overcome by transcending both, and this is what is meant by the word 'meditation'. What kind of meditation is suited for the individual can be found only with the guidance of a competent person. Find someone in the world—may be in your own place or elsewhere—and ask him which type of meditation is good for you.

Visitor: Cannot Swamiji tell me what is suited for me?

Swamiji: I will study you first, only then I can answer that question. Psychoanalysis, which is essential to understand the structure of the mind, is part of yoga itself. Yoga is the highest kind of self-analysis.

Visitor: Do you believe in dream-analysis as relevant to yoga practice?

Swamiji: Psychoanalysis includes dreams, etc. The function of the mind is studied in this analysis and all the various mental functions have to be studied, and it requires time. It is a long process of analysis undertaken leisurely. You need a guide for this, because you are studying yourself and, therefore, will be prone to justifications of your own way of thinking. You hold an opinion, because you are sure that it is right. But it may not be so in the final analysis which we have undertaken. Therefore, a personal guide is needed, because it is better to have two heads than one. Specially in the advanced stages of meditation, you need the guidance of a competent person.

To find out the type of yoga suitable for you, you must first fix up the aim in your taking to yoga. It is useless to proceed if you cannot fix up your aim. When you undertake a travel, unless you determine the aim and purpose you wish to achieve by travelling, how can you reach anywhere or fix up your travel programme?

Another visitor: I wish to study yoga.

Swamiji: Why do you want to study yoga?

Alex: I want to know what I am. I sit with my eyes closed trying to find out what I am.

Swamiji: How did this question arise in your mind? There must be something in your mind which is prompting you into this question. Why do you want to know yourself?

Visitor: Because I am not satisfied that I know myself.

Swamiji: Not satisfied? Why? Are you not happy?

Visitor: Sometimes I feel unhappy, but generally, quite happy.

Swamiji: Note down what makes you unhappy.

Visitor: I am not able to follow my own way of thinking, I am not in my own path.

Swamiji: Why do you feel so? Are you sure your way is right? If you are not sure, then why do you wish to change? There are different ways of thinking—how to judge which one is correct. If each one is correct in his own world and cannot harmonise his way of thinking with another, find out what the reason is.

That the world of one's own is different from that of the other is what results in war. Is your unhappiness caused by the necessity of following the law? Actually appreciation of the law is happiness. That is the first thing. Secondly, because you don't want to agree to other's opinions, you feel unhappy: this is wrong, this is selfishness. Thirdly, happiness is the result of agreeing to the law and thus avoiding trouble. Philosophical thinking brings about understanding. We must direct the mind to understand the law. Education is the capacity to understand. Philosophy is not for writing for the examinations. It is an education in the art of life itself, and not any compartmental knowledge. Philosophy means comprehensive thinking. You need not follow Plato or Kant. You can take their help to the extent you find them helpful. A wider vision and sympathy should be the result of the philosophy of thinking. All these need to be studied under a competent guide for a protracted period of time, just like in a university where they have the course chalked out systematically.

Because the subject here is more difficult, there is a great necessity for such a systematic course and a guide. Yoga is not one singled-out subject. It is fundamental, your existence itself. Understanding of the subject depends on the level one is at. The different qualities of different people is due to the fact that they are at different levels of understanding. It is not enough to meet one of your own level, but one who is at a higher level, so that you can progress. As human beings, we act alike in general. But we think differently in particularised details. Since yoga deals with the fundamentals of one's existence, there is need to harmonise by adjusting oneself to all the levels one meets with. That amount of adjustment is necessary which is needed for harmony, specially in such things as in differences of outlook, mind, aim, etc. of the individual.

When a person thinks rationally, there are, side by side, feelings of personality also. A man of understanding is also a man of feeling. It is in consideration of this that the great tradition of the Guru-disciple system of education had been planned with great wisdom by our ancients. But in modern times, we are trying to overstep this wise and necessary Guru-disciple tradition. The modern ideals of independence is the cause behind the impetuosity of severance from guidance. Self-dependence plays the key role in the misplaced idea that a Guru is dispensable. I repeat, you require a guide.

Another visitor: If I ponder over spiritual problems, I become depressed.

Swamiji: Thinking becomes depressing, because you don't understand the subject you are thinking of, and if your reading has not been understood, you feel more so. A medicine it meant to alleviate, and not to aggravate, the illness. If this happens, it means it is a wrong medicine. The disease has not been properly diagnosed, and a competent prescription has not been given. Three things are necessary for yoga:
1. Continuous study under a guide.
2. Contemplation of what has been studied.
3. Meditation on what has been understood. Contemplation is lighter in depth than meditation.

In meditation you become the object of your meditation and, therefore, have gone much deeper into your own personality and the relationship to the object of meditation.

Another visitor: Which is the best religion which gives the right direction?

Swamiji: What is good, bad, above, below, right, wrong—all this depends upon the position of the observer and, therefore, they are relative, and not absolute in themselves. There is no new philosophy. All philosophies are so many different aspects of theology. The old and the new concept of God is what you learn in the Old Testament and the New Testament. So, there is no right or wrong type of philosophy. All depends upon your level of understanding and your type of thinking. I will not say this is higher or that is lower. Do you know Judaism? You know nothing about it. What religion have you studied?

Visitor: I am only a student, and my subject is Theology. I have studied only in the university, and I like Hinduism.

Swamiji: What books have you studied?

Visitor: Mostly about hatha yoga and other yogas.

Swamiji: Why do you like Hinduism?

Visitor: Because I feel it is more open than the other religions that I studied.

Swamiji: What is the outlook of Hinduism? In what way is it different from the ways of other religions? How? Or, is there no difference?

Visitor: It has more practical value.