Posted on: 19 Jun 2007
[Dr. Nikhil said “My spiritual classmates did not become householders but I became a householder. All of them are lucky to have salvation.” Swami replied “Only you are going to get salvation because you became a householder. Nikhil was astonished and asked for clarification. Swami continued:]
The psychology of people is to get attracted towards things, which are far, and to get detached from things, which are very close. In fact, this is the general psychology of souls and even angels are not exceptions as said in the Veda “Paroksha Priya ivahi devah pratyaksha dvishah”, which means that even angels like any item, which is far, and dislike any item present before the eyes. This is the reason for God keeping us in close association of a worldly atmosphere and keeping Himself far from us. Whatever God does, it is always meaningful and we criticize God without understanding Him in depth. You should always be closely associated with the items from which you want detachment. You should always keep yourself far from the items towards which you want to maintain your attraction. When the item existing away from you becomes closely associated, your attraction towards it starts diminishing. This is the reason for the repulsion towards the contemporary human incarnation, which exists before your eyes. Similarly, the reason for the attraction towards past human incarnations and energetic incarnations of God, which are related to the upper world, is that these forms are not before your eyes.
Proximity Breeds Negligence
One day Radha came to Dwaraka from Vrindavanam and Rukmini offered her hot milk. Rukmini also used to drink the same hot milk every day but on that day Krishna became red due to heat. On enquiry, Krishna said that since He is in the heart of Radha, His body became red due to the hot milk that Radha drank. Then Rukmini asked the Lord as to why He never became red when she drank hot milk everyday. The Lord told her that the effect was seen in the case of Radha since He is only in the heart of Radha. Rukmini asked the reason for the difference between her and Radha. The Lord told her that since Rukmini stayed very close to Him, her devotion was not as strong as that of Radha, who was staying in Vrindavanam, far from Him. This story shows that close association always leads to the negligence.
Irony on Shivaratri
Two devotees were traveling to the city of Varanasi to worship Lord Shiva. One of them was attracted by a prostitute and stopped at her house before reaching Varanasi. The other person went to Varanasi and worshipped Shiva for the rest of his life. Both died on the day of Shivaratri. However, the person in Varanasi was always mentally attracted to the prostitute. The person who was with the prostitute was always attracted to Lord Shiva. Finally the messengers of Yama took the person who died in Varanasi to hell, whereas the messengers of Lord Shiva took the person who died in the prostitute’s house to the abode of Lord Shiva. All these incidents prove that you are always mentally attracted the item, which is far from you, and you are detached from the item, which is before your eyes.
Who is the real Brahmachari?
When Narada asked about the address of a real Brahmachari, Lord Brahma told him that Krishna was the real Brahmachari. Krishna had sixteen thousand wives! You can imagine the intensity of detachment from family life that must have resulted in His mind! This is the reason for His over attachment to God or Brahman. Brahmachari means the person who is intensely attached to God. The intense attachment of Krishna to God is clear through the excellent Gita that came out of His mouth. Of course, here you should take Krishna in the role of an ordinary human being to take this message. Similarly, Vashishtha married Arundhati and got a hundred sons through her. But he claimed to be the real Brahmachari and the river Ganges gave way to Arundhati when she uttered that her husband, a real Brahmachari, has asked for a way. This again shows that the opposite atmosphere around you creates real detachment from it. If you leave it and go far, your attraction on it will become more and more.
Reconciliation of Scriptural Injuctions
Sage Vashishtha says that it is better to be far from a worldly atmosphere to get detachment from it. You may think that this is contradictory to the above statement regarding human psychology. But on sharp analysis, the seeming contradiction is cleared. The statement of Sage Vashishtha does not apply to the stage of leaving the family permanently. His statement should be applied to a temporary period of meditation on God in the case of a householder. The householder gets real detachment from the family, being close to the family. Now he wants to concentrate on God for some time. For this purpose, he should leave the house and go to a lonely place and meditate upon God for some time. He cannot meditate upon God in the atmosphere of the house. Therefore, one should leave the house for a short period to concentrate on God in a lonely atmosphere as said in the Gita (Vivikta Desha Sevi…). But if one leaves the house permanently and goes to a forest for meditation upon God, every thing fails. The concept of leaving the family forever brings tremendous attraction to the family in the mind, leading to the failure of the meditation upon God. Therefore, the statement of Vashishtha in Yoga Vashishtha should be taken in the sense of a short exit from the house and not a permanent exit.
The statement in the Veda (Yadahareva Virajet Tadahareva Pravrajet), which says that you should leave the house whenever you are detached from the family, can be similarly be applied to leaving the house for a short period. The spiritual aspirant can control the mind and attain detachment from the family only gradually by such constant practice (Abhyasenatu…—Gita). Once the attachment to God becomes complete, the detachment from the family becomes natural and spontaneous and there need not be any effort for such detachment. After such detachment, one may stay in the house but he is still is not attached to the family internally, like King Janaka. For such a fully detached soul, even leaving the house for a divine program of propagating the spiritual knowledge will not pose any difficulty as in the case of Buddha and Shankara. Once the internal detachment is complete, the external detachment is not at all a problem and even if one does not get externally detached (does not leave the home), he is still a completely detached soul. There is no difference between King Janaka and Shankara or Buddha because in all these cases the internal detachment is complete. However, certain people, who only claim to have internal detachment like Janaka and do not get externally detached, can misinterpret this concept. Such cheating of the public is of no use because it is deceiving one’s own soul. One can never fool God.
When the person is totally absorbed in God, even the surrounding atmosphere of the family cannot disturb him in anyway as in the case of Janaka. Such a person, on the order of God, may even leave the family like Shankara and Buddha for the sake of the propagation of spiritual knowledge and devotion in the world. Such an exit from family life is designed in the divine program and cannot be taken as a step in the spiritual effort (sadhana) of a human being. Shankara and Buddha were human incarnations of God (Siddhas) and they are not to be compared with ordinary spiritual aspirants (sadhakas). If the spiritual aspirant becomes Janaka by gradual practice as said above, such a state is equal to the state of Buddha or Shankara, provided the attainment of that state is real with reference to his inner consciousness. Leaving the house for the propagation of knowledge and devotion should be done only on the command of God as stated by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
Tactful Handling of Maya
You have to tackle Maya carefully, with a tactful approach and with consideration to human psychology. Otherwise, you will be insulted and thrown away by the powerful Maya. Your spiritual effort should not be against the psychology of the mind. The detachment from the family should be spontaneous; without any effort. Effort means force and the mind, which is already attracted to the world, cannot be controlled by force. Without the complete attraction to God, if you detach the mind from worldly attractions, the mind will rebel because it needs the process of attraction as its food. If the mind is immersed in the attraction to God, it is satisfied with such divine nectar as its food. In the absence of divine nectar of devotion to God, the mind will eat some rubbish food since it cannot remain hungry without any food. In the absence of divine nectar of devotion as the food of highest quality, some food of even low quality is needed by the mind. When you are traveling, you cannot get good home-cooked food, but you also cannot remain hungry without eating any food. Therefore, you will eat bad junk food during the journey to pacify your hunger. Similar, is the case with mind. If you are served with good home-cooked food, you will not go for bad food even by force. Similarly, if you fully pacify your mind with devotion, the mind will not go for worldly affairs even if it is forced.
The high quality food should be sufficiently supplied to pacify the hunger. Only then is your hunger put off. Simply tasting a little food of high quality cannot pacify the hunger completely. Therefore, merely tasting the devotion of God is not sufficient to detach the mind from worldly affairs. Devotion should be completely injected into the mind so that the hunger of the mind is completely satisfied by the quantitative aspect also. Once your mind is always engaged in devotion, the worldly affairs cannot deviate you. This is the reason for the diversion of the mind to the world even though the mind has tasted devotion.
The devotion to God should be based on the absence of aspiration for any fruit in return. This point is the life of the entire field of devotion. In almost all cases, devotion is based on the need for God’s help in one’s materialistic life or in getting protection from the torture in hell after death. Such need-based devotion will lead to atheism, one day or the other, because at least after some time, God will keep silent towards such need based devotion [He will not respond to your prayers]. When God becomes silent, the need for God disappears. Then devotion also vanishes like the useless tail vanished in the case of the human being in the process of evolution. The tail is well developed in the case of animals because it is needed to drive away flies. But when the animal started walking on two legs and its two hands developed well enough to drive away flies, the tail slowly disappeared due lack of use. A monkey walks on four legs and therefore it has a strong tail to drive away flies. When the same monkey became a human being through the process of evolution, the hands were well developed and hence the tail disappeared.
If you see the physical form of Hanuman, it is a fully human form with well-developed hands. The mouth of Hanuman [which is monkey-like] can be seen even in some human beings and therefore it cannot prove that Hanuman was a monkey. His mouth was as good as the mouth of a handsome human being. It was deformed since it got burnt after He swallowed the sun. In His case, the tail should have disappeared since it had no use for Him. But in His case, the tail was very long and very strong even though its need had disappeared. The tail represents devotion without need or aspiration of fruit. The long tail represents continuous devotion without any break, even in the absence of need. The strong tail denotes intensive devotion, even in the absence of need. Thus, the very physical form of Hanuman represents His path of devotion, which is very strong and continuous even in the absence of any need. Even though there was no aspiration for any fruit, God gave Him the highest fruit by which He became God Himself.
The Veda says,” Avidyaya Mrityum Tritva Vidyaya Amrutam ashnute”, which means that one should cross Maya with the help of Maya alone and one should catch God only with the help of true knowledge. This means that you can capture God by truth and sincerity alone. But you cannot win the world by the same truth and sincerity. The world is full of falsehood or Maya. To reach God, you have to cross this world only by false means. Therefore you have to learn both Maya and true knowledge to be used for the world and God respectively. If you reverse the order, you will neither cross Maya nor attain God. When your aim is God, the false means used to cross the worldly bonds are not at all false. Anything in the direction of God is not at all false. Anything in the direction of the world is not at all true. The end justifies the means. A lie told by Krishna to kill Drona became justice. Even truth against the will of God becomes injustice.
Shankara wanted to leave His mother for the sake of divine service. Several times He told His mother the true spiritual knowledge. But each time the mother finally wanted Him to stay with her. Then at last, Shankara cheated her by telling a lie that a crocodile caught his leg underwater and forced her to accept His taking samnyasa as His last wish. He did not cheat her to allow Him to marry an unacceptable girl. In that case it would be a sin. He cheated His mother only for the sake of God, which is the right thing to do. Similarly, Buddha left his family in the middle of the night.
Sai Baba said that the verse in the Gita “Upadekshyanti te jnanam” (which means that the preacher will preach knowledge) should also be reversed. The word Jnanam (knowledge) can be replaced by the word Ajnanam (ignorance), which means that the preacher shall also preach about ignorance or Maya to cross the Maya. Unless you cross the river, you cannot reach the village on the other bank. The guide who describes the village present on the other bank of the river, must also teach you to swim in order to cross the river. Krishna knew how to steal butter and dance with the Gopikas in order to attract them and make them detached from their worldly bonds. At the same time He was the most excellent expert in spiritual knowledge as seen through His preaching of the Gita. When the preacher gives only the knowledge of God, the soul cannot cross Maya with the help of that knowledge. Such a preacher is a human Guru, who gives only theoretical knowledge without the practical knowledge that is required in the world-laboratory. Only the Sadguru can give both theoretical and practical knowledge. He represents not only the scripture but also the world (Vishwam Vishnuh...). Science is the knowledge of the world (Vijnanam) and it is unaware of God. Hence science can also be treated as ignorance (Avidya). Though science cannot speak about God, it can disprove the claim that awareness is God. It correctly identifies awareness as a non-God item of creation. The Advaita philosopher, who does not know this ignorance (science) mistakes awareness to be God. Therefore, the knowledge of unimaginable God can be established only on knowing science intensively. Science can prove all the non-God items to be non-God items. To cross the Maya of awareness, one requires the help of ignorance (science) and not the mere knowledge of God from the scripture.
Knowing and Managing the Mind
You must know the nature of intelligence and also the nature of the mind in order to control the mind. Although intelligence is the higher faculty, it cannot control the mind simply by passing on orders in the form of decisions. The mind yields to the decision of intelligence immediately but gradually, the mind proposes alternatives (Vikalpa) and controls the intelligence by diverting it into the alternative way. The mind is like the tactful wife, who yields to the decision of the husband on the spot, but in course of time gradually diverts him to follow her will, through sweet proposals. To capture this tactful mind, you must learn the same talent of the mind. Krishna transformed Satyabhama gradually by not behaving like her husband but by behaving like a wife to her. You can cut a diamond only by another diamond and you can remove a thorn only by another thorn. To teach this spiritual concept of intelligence and the mind, God created man and woman with such different natures, to represent the intelligence and the mind respectively.
When this concept is understood, both men and women should take the concept equally and get spiritual benefit. There is no difference between a man and a woman in their three bodies. The gross body is made of five elements, the inner subtle body is made of three qualities and the innermost causal body is made of pure awareness in both the cases. Only the compositions (proportions) of the three qualities vary in both the cases to suit the above concept. Thus, the firm intelligence and the inconsistent mind are represented by the man and the woman respectively. Here both are equal as actors, but there is a difference in the external assigned roles. One actor need not criticize the other actor for his or her external role. Thus, the man need not criticize the inconsistent nature of the woman, which is only a role given by God. The man should also learn the submissiveness of the woman, which is also an external role and which is necessary for attaining the grace of God.
The Veda says that the five parts (Koshas) starting from the gross body, made of food (Annam), are Brahman. If you apply these five parts in the case of an ordinary human being, the word Brahman stands for the greatest item in a category. The Sanskrit Dictionary (Amarakosha) allows this alternative meaning, which is derived from its root word. The Gita also gives an example for such an alternative usage when it uses Brahman to mean the Veda, which is the greatest among scriptures (Brahmaakshara...). If you take the word Brahman in the sense of God, then those Vedic statements pertain to the case of the human incarnation and not to the case of an ordinary human being. It means that each of the five parts has become God just like the live wire is treated as electric current in every part internally and externally (Antarbahishcha…—Veda).
You cannot take the case of an ordinary human being and use the word Brahman in the sense of God, and say that every human being is God. Even if you did that, you cannot say that awareness alone is God because even the gross body is said to be God in the Veda in the context of Pancha Koshas. Advaita, which restricts only to pure awareness (soul or causal body) as God cannot fit itself even in this line of misinterpretation.