Facets of Spirituality

by Swami Krishnananda

Compiled by S. Bhagyalakshmi

December 26, 1978

A visitor: What happens to us after death?

Swamiji: If you exist after death, there is no need to worry. If you do not exist, there is no point in worrying. What does it matter even if it is a continuous existence after death. Tomorrow is no botheration because it is yet to come. Therefore, death is not a problem. Look at it either way. So why bother? Because you have a hazy notion both of existence after death and also of non-existence, because you have 50/50 percent of both these notions, the problem has risen before you. There is always a problem when partial views are taken. A partial view gives a double attitude. There is a big philosophy behind this problem. As the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad puts it, the subject and object are 50/50 percent mixed with up each in the other because neither is 100 percent. Therefore the problem of likes and dislikes arises. If this double attitude goes, the problem goes too. When you project God as an outside object, then you say God has no sense. He sends cyclones, earthquakes, etc. He is very unkind; He is very cruel. The problem before you is because of conflict between the subject and the object; your understanding is in conflict with the understanding of God. Your understanding is in the light of the report of your senses, and the mind is ever ready to rely upon the report the senses bring. God's understanding is independent of the senses. And yoga is withdrawal of the senses from the objects, because senses act like the prism that splits light into seven colours. Hence, to get the pure light of understanding, yoga, which is the withdrawal of senses from the objects, is the solution. Then the double attitude of subject versus the object goes.

Another visitor: What is the difference between feeling and emotion.

Swamiji: The two are like the wind and the cyclone. Feeling is mild emotion; emotion is strong feeling. A singled-out emotion versus all other views, and emotions of even collective nature, is passion. A preference for a particular emotion is passion. Passion is a thought that overpowers personality.

Visitor: What is the difference between devotion and passion?

Swamiji: Devotion without understanding is only emotion, and later becomes a passion—fanaticism.

Another visitor: If all devotion ultimately reaches the Absolute in whatever form it is offered, why is there such an elaborate arrangement for devotion to lesser deities?

Swamiji: Shankaracharya, in his commentary on the Brihadaranayaka Upanishad, says: "Why quarrel with the lesser gods by objecting to the worship offered to them? Please them. There is no harm in it."

Visitor: Why can we not think of God as such.

Swamiji: You can't think of God as such because the minute you think God, He becomes the object. You think of God as a particular potentiality, power, force, conduct or beauty. The history of mankind is the manifestation of God's potentiality in any or all these forms. It is said that before manifestation, it was all dark, unknowable, ununderstandable, etc., and this potentiality has no beginning nor end, even as there is neither beginning nor end of the cosmos. Only for man who thinks in terms of the present, past and future, there is a beginning, a process and an end, and there is history.

Visitor: Why is this Yuga called Kali Yuga?

Swamiji: The yugas come in a cycle. There are four yugas, which come in rotation: Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. Satya Yuga is the golden age. The golden age is a condition of things where consciousness of externality is minimum, and consciousness of universality is maximum. In the golden age, there is the highest consciousness of universality. The question whether creation is a reality or not cannot be answered. Both ways of answering it, yes and no, land us in one or the other kind of problem. So, why creation was of the highest consciousness of universality in the golden age cannot be easily answered. The reason why we feel that now in Kali Yuga we are in a non-golden age is because the sense of externality is overpowering the other view, viz., that there co-exists the consciousness of universality. Hence, the consciousness of universality is reduced to the minimum. There are books written by a Chinese author: Infinite Way, etc. In these books, he gives the same thoughts as those contained in the Indian system of thought explained by Patanjali. Matter is another name for externality, in other words, sensory perception, and if there is 100 percent perception of externality, it is inferno. At one stage, there is a balance between sensory perception of externality and the consciousness of universality. At another stage, there is complete abolition of this balance. Then the catastrophe occurs, as in the case of the Yadavas being exterminated by Lord Krishna, an Avatar. Thus starts another yuga. The golden age is the harmonious self-existence. It is the harmonious relationship of all forces in the world. Kali Yuga will be followed by Satya Yuga. The world is not going to the dogs. The Supreme is ever Bliss and happiness.

Another visitor: Why do we have to search for our own souls?

Swamiji: There is logical contradiction in that things are outside us. By logic it can easily be seen that the universe is one whole, of which we are parts. For example, the hand in our body. It appears to be outside our body, but it is really not so. And if there is no conflict between the hand which is outside the body, why should a conflict arise when we perceive the world as outside us? Yet conflict is raised: the world versus man. The greatest conflict, however, is the relation between man and God. There are four types of conflicts that assail man:
1. Conflict of man in society;
2. Conflict of man in his own (individual) personality;
3. Conflict of man, between the individual and the Universal, i.e., the cosmos;
4. Conflict of the relation between man and God or the conflict between the spirit and the Supreme.

God created the world and, therefore, it is outside God. That is the idea we have. This is a wrong notion, and it is with this wrong notion that we complain against Him. The world is not created in the sense of space-time relationship as far as God is concerned. This space-time relationship being foisted upon God is also a wrong notion. Now, the dream proves to you that you can exist independent of the physical body. The parallels can be seen in the existence of God in the world and beyond it, what is it that exists continuously in both states of dream and waking consciousness. We had no awareness in sleep, and yet we know that we slept. This is the contradiction. It is a recollection which is also a fact. How does contradiction in this recollection come—of the sleep of yesterday and the waking consciousness today? We say it is memory of the dream which is recollected today. What is memory? Memory is a remembrance of previous experience, which is not possible unless there is consciousness of the previous experience. For example, the stone does not have any recollection or memory of the time-space complex, though a degree of consciousness does exist in it. Therefore, consciousness is independent of mind and body. Consciousness alone is present in deep sleep. Therefore, it is a proof that you can go beyond body and mind, but not beyond consciousness. If there is no consciousness, who will know that you slept, you had dreamt, etc. It can only be if consciousness has been continuously present. You cannot believe that there is anything beyond and outside consciousness; therefore, consciousness is everywhere. Thus, your essential nature is somehow that existence everywhere. Do you search for your own soul, was your question. How can you search your own soul outside this existence which is everywhere, the Absolute? This all-Soul is God, within whom rests the whole world. God did not create the world for you as an object and you as the subject opposed and outside you. Yoga aims at reconciling all the conflicts we have now mentioned: 1. Social, 2. Individual, 3. The individual in the Cosmos, 4. Spiritual and the Absolute.

These are the stages mentioned by sage Patanjali, and are based on intense scientific investigation. Yoga is meant for everyone because everyone has these four conflicts, which have to be resolved by reconciling the contradictions. Therefore, yoga is for everyone. Yoga is the art of the science applicable to anyone anywhere, every time, for Hindu monks or for other types of monks in other religions.

Om is a symbol of the vibration from which is supposed to emanate the manifestations of the world. Science says electricity is vibration. Not only that, science further says that all materials, the so-called objects of the world, are nothing but vibrations ultimately. A substance is hard, soft, not palpable, etc. according to the vibrations our fingers register. Even so, universal vibration is the energy of the whole Cosmos, which is Om.

Hence, we may say that the world and ourselves and God are not separate from one another, but constitute a continuum of consciousness. To realise this, the four conflicts mentioned above must be resolved at the very start before we try to go to the next stage. The first conflict must be resolved before trying to resolve the next stage of conflict. We must go stage by stage, and not overstep any stage. If you know well the level at which you stand now, the next stage is not difficult to reach. The difficulty will come only if you try to jump levels.

It is but natural that you must have time of your own to ponder over the level you are on. Only then you can resolve the conflict one by one and progress towards your goal, and it is possible to find time for yourself because you are not occupied all the twenty-four hours of the day. Nor do you have to be in the midst of people every hour of the day. This is never the case. So tell people, for one hour—any hour that you decide upon—you will not see anyone. Every problem must have a solution. Problems cannot exist as an eternal fact. You may feel that while devoting time for your own self in this manner, you are not doing your duty to other people. This is not so. If your problem is service of people, you can do more service by being alone this one hour and resolving the problem of conflict. That way you have drawn more strength, and thereby have fortified yourself for the object you say you have, viz., service to people. The scientist when working in the laboratory is alone with his experiment, and not in the midst of people. The doctor in the operation theatre is alone with the patient, and does not operate in the midst of people in the ward. So the conditions necessary to tackle a problem is clear from these two examples. It is necessary to be alone to resolve your own problems because from the generalities observed, it is not possible to find the solution to the individual's problems. But like the ocean which remains calm even when the waves are dashing on the shore, you must remain calm and rest in your own individuality when the waves of problems of society dash upon you. From this analogy, the relationship which exists between society and you is clear, and the art of yoga is this art of keeping calm like the ocean. The art of yoga is to become a superman, and yoga will make you that. The only trouble is, you are in a hurry and wish to get on quickly with it and be through with it. There is no point in hurrying to the goal, as we have seen; every step must be given its due time to resolve itself into the next higher step.

The reason why the psyche, or the individual, takes on many incarnations is because the psyche is taking a new body for every new experience it desires to undergo. The psyche's desires are many. Why these desires arise is a different subject of philosophy. In a nutshell, you may say that the infiniteness of desires results from the fact that the psyche is seeking the Infinite every time, in every experience. This is why the body is cast off when the psyche withdraws from it, because the psyche knows that in this body the experience of that particular desire is not possible. When this body is cast off, the gravitation of the psyche pulls the materials needed for the body that can enjoy the desired experience, and builds the new body. It is like the magnet that pulls the iron fillings in different patterns under different conditions. The psyche pulls the atoms of the universe in the same manner, giving rise to a suitable incarnation.

No-desire is God. Hence, once you have reached God, there is no reincarnation or, in other words, once your desires are nullified, you reach God, which means God-realisation, which means no more reincarnation. Once you have understood the nature of Truth or realised the Truth, which means God-realisation, then there is no desire. Only because this Truth has not been realised, the search for the Infinite continues in the form of desires, and therefore there are repeated reincarnations of man. The notion that the world is outside you is what makes you go to the world for the satisfaction of your desires and for obtaining happiness. And for this you engage yourself in a number of activities in the world. The actions you perform in the world, and their reactions, are the cause of your being caught up in a net of action, which the Hindu philosophy calls karma. Karma means the impressions on the psyche produced by your actions and the reactions to them. These impressions in turn prompt you for more actions on the same lines. Movement of the psyche towards an object is for the fulfilment of its desire. Ignorance of Truth produces desire, and in turn produces action. All these three go together, hand in hand. If all these three factors are absent, then your action is God-action, and this God-action is what is explained in the Bhagavadgita as karma yoga.

What man likes is ordinary freedom, but freedom in its real sense means ultimately to be in tune with the Absolute. That is real freedom. Psychoanalysts have told us that we are not free in the sense we understand it, and our freedom is not what we imagine it to be. Take any action in which you feel you have freedom. For instance, you have freedom to eat. But do you have the freedom to eat whenever you want? Unless there is the compulsion of hunger in your system, you don't eat food. How, then, have you acted with your own freedom when what has made you act is the hunger factor? It may now be possible to understand that the urge for the recognition of the soul, that is realisation of the Atman, or God-realisation, is possible under special circumstances.

When you are driven to the corner by the external, inevitable and irresistible urge, and the purpose of reincarnation is tightened, you can reorganise the phenomena of the empirical world of the time-space complex. But unless this urge is there, it is not possible to get into those special circumstances which drive you to the Truth, and so due to this, evolution goes on from the atom to the soul, until the soul gets identified with the Absolute. Evolution is there because it is a movement towards the Absolute. The Absolute is the only thing that does not evolve because it is the whole of the evolution and, therefore, with the attainment of the Absolute, evolution ends.