November 30

What is permanent? What is impermanent?

What is permanent is reality.
What is impermanent is non-reality.

Reality is the existence of light, in light and for light.
Non-reality is the existence of night, in night and for night.

Reality's parents are divinity and immortality.
Non-reality's parents are bondage and ignorance.

When we see the Divine Light we feel happy. When we feel the Divine Light we become strong; and when we grow into the Divine Light our life becomes fruitful.

When we see the undivine night, we become weak, impotent. When we feel the undivine night, we feel sorry, we feel miserable; and when we grow into the undivine night, our life becomes meaningless, fruitless.

Now, illumining light and illumined light; darkening night and darkened night. Illumining light is the light that is within us. Illumined light is the light that is without us. Darkening night is the night that is before us. Darkened night is the night that is around us.

That which is real is permanent, and what is permanent is spiritual. What is spiritual? The life of the ever-transcending Beyond is spiritual. But this life of the ever-transcending Beyond has to be manifested here on earth. This life is real, reality itself.

What is unspiritual? Let us use the term 'material'. Material is something which is the wealth of the fleeting time.

Divine wealth and material wealth. Divine wealth is our inner aspiration. This aspiration is the song of Infinity, Eternity, and Immortality within us. Material wealth is desire. It is the cry for immediate and constant possession. When we try to possess, unfortunately we feel that we are already possessed. When we try to see someone with our soul's light, we feel that we are already liberated, and he too is already liberated.

A thing permanent is divine. A thing impermanent is undivine. When divine wisdom dawns on earth, we will realise that an impermanent thing is useless.

Divinity and immortality are within us. Immortality tells us what to do and divinity tells us how to do it. Immortality tells us to listen to the dictates of our soul, which is a spark of the Supreme Light. It tells us to be conscious of the Inner Pilot constantly. Divinity tells us how we can do it. We can do it through a self-disciplined life, through dedication to a higher cause, through purification of our outer nature, and through undying and unreserved love for God.

Bondage and ignorance are the parents of night. Ignorance tells us what to do and bondage tells us how to do it. Ignorance tells us to destroy the world and bondage tells us how to do it — through cruelty and brutality, through unfair means.

A spiritual seeker tries to enter into the inmost recesses of his heart, and from there he tries to bring light to the fore. With the help of this light, he wants to grow into the breath of the permanent. Now, to grow into the breath of the permanent, what we need is inner wisdom. What is this inner wisdom?

Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita, the Song Celestial, says to Arjuna, his divine instrument, "O Arjuna, a wise man is he who has the mastery over the senses." That is to say, when we conquer the senses, we enter into the realm of wisdom, where reality grows and divinity flows.

Now, to enter into the world of wisdom we need constant love — love for the truth, love for light. But right now we are fond of fleeting truth, fleeting light, fleeting possession. The fleeting wealth that we have or we cherish is terribly afraid of truth. It doubts truth and it fears God. But our divine wealth, aspiration, invokes truth and adores God. Each day we are seeing with our own eyes and feeling with our own heart the impermanence of the man-made world. That is to say, the things that we create with our thoughts and ideas do not last. This moment I have a thought and soon that thought is gone. Perhaps it gives me a result; this result lasts for, again, another fleeting second.

But there is something else we call will-power — soul's will, adamantine will of the soul. If we can exercise an iota of this will-power, then we will see that not only the action but also the result is an everlasting reality. In order to develop the will-power of the soul, we have to enter into the life of the Spirit. We have to have a self-disciplined life. Self-disciplined life does not mean the mortification of life or a conscious torture to the human life. Self-disciplined life means a life that needs the Light and wants to be guided by the Light, moulded and shaped by the Light. And when the life is disciplined, we shall not act like animals. When the life is disciplined enough, the real divinity will grow. At that time we can say that God-realisation or self-discovery is our birthright, and in God-realisation we acquire the wisdom of the everlasting Truth.

It is not that one individual or some individuals are chosen to realise the highest Truth. No, far from it. Each individual is an instrument of God; but he has to be conscious. Right now he is not; he is unconscious. But when he prays, when he meditates, he automatically becomes a constant, conscious instrument of God. And he who becomes a conscious instrument of God hears in the very heart of the finite the message of the Infinite, and feels in the fleeting the Breath of the Eternal.

To think of God, to meditate on God constantly, is to live in God unreservedly. When we live in God constantly, soulfully, and unreservedly, God unconditionally does everything for us. In infinite measure He offers His Light, Peace, and Bliss, and we grow into His very Image.

Here on earth the message of the permanent Truth, the transcendental Truth has to be fulfilled, for God has chosen earth as His field for Manifestation. The eternal Light has to be manifested here on earth, and we, all of us, have to become conscious instruments of God. We can be so if we have the inner cry, and this inner cry has to be the cry of a child. The child cries for his mother. The mother comes running towards the child, no matter where the mother is. The child may be in the living room or he may be in the kitchen, but the mother comes running to feed the child.

Similarly, when we have the inner cry, spontaneous cry for Light and Truth, God out of His Infinite Bounty will show us the Light, and in that Light we will grow.

We shall fulfil God. While fulfilling God, we shall fulfil ourselves, and our only prayer to God is:

Lead us from the unreal to the real.
Lead us from darkness to light.
Lead us from death to Immortality,
O Lord Supreme!

"Nalpe sukham asti bhumaiva sukham.
In the finite there is no happiness.
The Infinite alone is happiness."

Anything that is finite cannot embody happiness, not to speak of lasting Delight. The finite embodies pleasure, which is not true happiness. The Infinite embodies true divine happiness in infinite measure, and, at the same time, it reveals and offers to the world at large its own Truth, its own Wealth.

The Infinite expresses itself in infinite forms and infinite shapes here in the world of multiplicity; and again this Infinite enjoys itself in a divine and supreme manner in the highest Transcendental Plane of its own consciousness. The Infinite here in the world of multiplicity expresses itself in three major forms. Creation is the first aspect of the Infinite. The second aspect is preservation. The third aspect is dissolution or destruction.

These terms, creation, preservation, and destruction, are philosophical and religious terms. From the spiritual point of view, creation existed, does exist, and is being preserved. When we use the term destruction, we have to be very careful. There is no such thing as destruction in the Supreme’s inner Vision — it is nothing but transformation. When we lose our desires, we feel that they have been destroyed. But they have not been destroyed — they have only been transformed into a larger vision which is aspiration. We started our journey with desire, but when we launched into the spiritual path desire gave way to aspiration. The unlit consciousness which we see in the form of desire can be transformed and will be transformed by the aspiration within us. What, with our limited knowledge and vision, we call destruction, from the spiritual point of view is the transformation of our unlit, impure, obscure nature.

"Ekamevadvitiyam.
Only the One, without a second."

From this One we came into existence, and at the end of our journey’s close we have to return to the Absolute One. This is the soul’s journey. If we take it as an outer journey, then we are mistaken. In our outer journey we have a starting point and a final destination. It may take a few years or many years for us to reach our destined goal, but the starting point is at one place and the destination is somewhere else. But the inner journey is not a journey as such, with the origin here and the goal elsewhere. In our inner journey we go deep within and discover our own Reality, our own forgotten Self.

How do we discover our forgotten Self? We do it through meditation. There are various types of meditation: simple meditation, which everybody knows; deep meditation, which the spiritual seeker knows; and higher or highest meditation, which is the meditation of the soul, in the soul, with the soul, for the entire being. When an ordinary seeker meditates, he meditates in the mind. If he is a little advanced, he meditates in the heart. If he is far advanced in the spiritual life, he can meditate in the soul and with the help of the soul for the manifestation of Divinity in humanity.

Spiritual Masters meditate in the physical, in the vital, in the mind, in the heart, and in the souls of their disciples. These Masters also meditate all at once on the Infinite, Eternal, and Immortal. These are not vague terms to the real spiritual Masters. They are dynamic realities, for in their inner consciousness real spiritual Masters swim in the sea of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. They can easily concentrate, meditate, and contemplate on these three divine Realities which represent the Absolute.

The Upanishads have come into existence from four Vedas: the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the Atharva Veda. Each Veda has something unique to offer to mankind. The first and most famous Veda is the Rig Veda. It starts with a cosmic God, Agni, the Fire God. Fire means aspiration. Aspiration and the message of the Vedas are inseparable. This fire is the fire of inner awakening and inner mounting flame. It has no smoke in it. This fire does not burn anything; it only illumines and elevates our consciousness. The Fire God is the only cosmic God who is a Brahmin. Agni, fire, expresses itself in seven forms and it has seven significant inner names: Kali, the black; Karali, the terrible, Manojava, thought-swift; Sulohita, blood-red; Sudhumravarna, smoke-hued; Sphulingi, scattering sparks; Vishvaruchi, the all-beautiful.

Kali, the black, is not actually black. Kali is the divine force or fire within us which fights against undivine hostile forces. The Mother Kali fights against demons in the battlefield of life. In the vital plane we see her as a dark, tenebrous Goddess, but in the highest plane of consciousness she is golden. We see her terrible form when she fights against hostile forces, but she is the Mother of Compassion. We misunderstand her dynamic qualities — we take them as aggressive qualities. Mother Kali has compassion in boundless measure, but at the same time, she will not tolerate any sloth, imperfection, ignorance, or lethargy in the seeker. Finally, Mother Kali is beauty unparalleled. This beauty is not physical beauty. This beauty is inner beauty, which elevates human consciousness to the highest plane of Delight.

The Sama Veda offers us God’s music, the soul’s music. In addition, it offers India’s religion, India’s philosophy, and India’s politics. All these striking achievements of India have come from the Sama Veda. Music is of paramount importance in the Sama Veda. It is not at all like modern music; it is the real soul-stirring music. The greatest sage of the past, Yagnavalka, said, “The abode of music is Heaven.” It is the Sama Veda which holds this heavenly music — the soul-stirring, life-energising music.

Most of you have read the Bhagavad Gita, the Song Celestial of Lord Krishna. There Lord Krishna says, “I am the Sama Veda.” He does not say that he is the Rig Veda or the Yajur Veda or the Atharva Veda. No, he says that he is the Sama Veda. Why? Because in the Sama Veda Krishna found the soul’s music, which is his very own. A great Indian philosopher-saint, Patanjali, begins his philosophy with the Sama Veda precisely because of its inner music. If music is taken away from God’s creation, then it will be an empty creation. God the Creator is the Supreme Musician, and His creation is His only Delight. It is in His music that God feels Delight, and it is through music that He offers Himself to His aspiring and unaspiring children.

From the Sama Veda we get the most significant Upanishad, the Chandogya Upanishad. This Upanishad is equal to the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad. It is by far the largest in size, and, according to many, it is not only the largest but also the best. Again, there are those who are of the opinion that the Isha Upanishad, which is tiny, very tiny, is the best — not because of its size, but because of its depth. Some will say the Svetasvatara or Katha or Kena Upanishad is the best. Each one has to express his sincere feeling about the essence of a particular Upanishad. The Chandogya Upanishad, which derives from the Sama Veda, says something most significant to the sincere seekers. One question which spiritual teachers are very often asked is, “Why do we need a teacher? Can we not realise God by ourselves?” In the Chandogya Upanishad there is a specific way of convincing the doubters and the unaspiring human beings who argue for the sake of argument.

The Chandogya Upanishad says: Think of yourself as a traveller. You have lost your way, and a robber attacks you. He takes away all your wealth, and binds your eyes. Then he takes you to a faraway place and leaves you there. Originally you had vision, and you were able to move around, but now your fate is deplorable. You cannot see, you cannot walk, you are crying like a helpless child, but there is no rescue. Now suppose someone comes and unties your eyes and goes away. You will then be able to see the paths all around you, but you will not know which one is the right one for you, and even if you did, you would not be able to walk on it because your legs and arms are still bound. This is the condition of the seeker who wants to realise God by himself. But suppose someone comes, unties you completely, and shows you which path will take you home. This person has really done you a favour. If you have faith in him and confidence in yourself, then you will reach your destination swiftly and surely. If you have faith in him, but do not have confidence in your own capacity to reach the goal, then he will go along to help you. The same teacher who freed you from blindness and showed you the path will go with you, inside you, to inspire you. He will act as your own aspiration to lead you towards your destined Goal.

If you get this kind of help from a spiritual Master, then your life can be of significance, your life can bear fruit, and you can run the fastest towards the Goal. Otherwise, you will walk today on this path, tomorrow on that path, and the following day on some other path. You may have the capacity to walk, but you will come back again and again to your starting point, frustrated and disappointed. Along with capacity, if you know the right path and have a true Master to help you, who can prevent you from reaching your destined Goal? Once you reach your destined Goal, you reach God’s Heights and start manifesting God’s Light here on earth. You are fulfilled — fulfilled multiplicity in Unity’s embrace.