DESIRE AND DETACHMENT official source: Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 3 cross-references: also published in Ananda Marga Ideology and Way of Life in a Nutshell Part 4 and (mistakenly, as "The Science of Spirituality"), in Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 19. It will be omitted from SS 19 when this is reprinted. this version: is the printed Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 3, 2nd edition (according to copyright p.), 1992, version (spelling mistakes only may have been corrected). I.e., this is the most up-to-date version as of the present Electronic Edition. The subject of my discourse today will be : Intuitional Science as described in the Krs'n'a-Yajurveda. The perceptible world is constructed with the cooperation of five fundamental elements. Ether (Vyoma) is the subtlest of these five elements. Due to its extreme subtleness the Vyomatattva is able to prove its existence only through its sound-Tanma'tra. In order to understand this Vyomatattva or its sound-waves or its sound-radiation, a special type of Scientific instrument is necessary. Except this Vyomatattva the remaining four elements you can easily make out with the help of your crude organs. The Supreme Consciousness or Purus'a, however, is subtler than all the five elements. How can the senses apprehend this Conscious Entity, when they cannot easily catch the subtle Vyomatattva? The Consciousness or Purus'a-Entity is beyond the scope of mental or supramental sphere, for the object of the mental or supramental sphere is matter - the five elements or their semblances. That is why, you are unable to reach the Parama Purus'a or the Cosmic Consciousness with the help of your mind. Your mind will have to come back disappointed repeatedly, if it tries to reach Him, for He is beyond the reach of your imaginative power. You cannot get to Him through any common knowledge. Yama said, Yato va'co nivartante apra'pya manasa' saha A'nandam' Brahman'o vidva'n na vibheti kutashcana. The attainment of Brahma is not possible through mind, nor is it feasible through words. Frustration awaits both of them, if they are employed to attain Him. With the establishment in the Brahmic Bliss, mind, intellect, words - all get lost, for He is the self-same Happiness - the bliss absolute. One has to be established in Him through the exultant force of one's consciousness. After reaching Him, mind being non-existent, the six enemies (lust, anger, avarice, delusion, pride and envy) also cannot remain there. The Sa'dhaka then becomes free from all fears. Tandurdarshaugu'd'hamanupravis't'am guha'hitam' gahvares't'harampura'n'am A'dhya'tmayoga'dhigamena devam' matva' dhiiro hars'ashokao jaha'ti. The Supreme Consciousness is unseeable, i.e., He is not perceptible by the sight-organ. One cannot apprehend nor can one understand an extremely vast and extremely subtle thing through one's organs. Molecules and atoms are not apprehensible to man's organs due to their being too subtle. In order to see them or understand them one has to take the help of Scientific instruments. Similarly the Supreme Consciousness is not visible (He is, however, not invisible), that is to say, one has to take pains to `see' Him. Just as intellectual and scientific vision is necessary for seeing molecules and atoms, similarly spiritual vision is necessary for seeing the Supreme Brahma, i.e., He is attainable only through spiritual knowledge. Hence in order to attain Him you have got to do upavas'a, which means worship. The word, Gu'd'ha means deep. He is deep. With superficial sentiment or thought it is impossible for you to know Him. To know Him you have to go deep inside - you will have to be introspective. External sight will not do. The one that you see as an ordinary man by your external sight, is actually a conscious entity, if you see him with your internal sight. The one that you see to be an animal or an inanimate object by your superficial sight, is really a sentient entity, if you apply your internal sight. That is why, I say, in order to see Him, one has to go deep into the seen object. He is deep - very deep and its is due to this intrinsicality that He abides in all the entities in an immutable form. While going to see Him in this state of supreme unicity, all distinctions of superficial objects thin away into air. In reality, the first and the last word of spiritual Sa'dhana' is to see the synthesis of many in One in a single form. Physics is characteristically analytical. So the investigation or research on matter is carried out externally. But in the sphere of investigation and intuitive comprehension of what is characteristically unific or synthetic, there is no other alternative than to take recourse to introspection. This Purus'a Entity is inherent and permanent in all objects and so to `see' Him one has got to establish oneself in the subtlest of the subtle, deepest of the deep sphere. He abides in the innermost recess or the fundamental intellect as its Supreme Knower. He is the vital Entity of that cavity - that sense of ego, which is within you and that is why, He has been called `caverned' (Guha'hita). In order to know Him you will have to proceed in a straight and simple way into the inner realm, making your thought subtler and yet subtler. When one attains intuitional knowledge, all one's troubles and woes disappear. Do you know why? Mind is the perceiver of pleasure and pain, but Brahma is even above the supramental stage. In order to attain Him you have got to outstep the limit of your mind and along with it you will have to leave behind all the pleasurable and sufferable junks of your distorted mind. He is ancient - He is beyond the scope of time. To Him the spatial, temporal and personal reputations are of no value, for each of these is a particular manifestation of the mind. You cannot possess Him through your worldly erudition or by the stamp of your degrees and diplomas for all worldly knowledge is subject to, time, space and person. Being spontaneous or self-manifest in spiritualism, He is not dependent on any second worldly entity. To achieve that Brahma who is the supreme goal of spirituality, one has to take recourse to spiritual sacrifice (Sa'dhana'). Not with the eyes of others - not with the spectacles of others, you will `see' Him within you with your own `eyes'. You will move inward, not on any other vehicle but by virtue of your own inspirational propulsion. A calm and collected individual, who is a genuine spiritual aspirant, attains Brahma in this very manner and with the attainment of Brahma one goes beyond the reach of pleasure and pain - one does not have those mental distortions like pleasure and pain. He attains a state which is called the state of supreme bliss. Etacchrutva' samparigrhya'mattyah pravrhya dharmyaman'umetamapya Sa modate modaniiyam' hi labdhva' vivrta sadma naciketasammanye. What is the result of learning this intuitional science from a competent preceptor? By dint of this intuitional science man learns to understand thoroughly what is temporal and what is eternal. The scriptures call this power of understanding the eterno-temporal discrimination (Nityanitya' viveka). You will accept only the eternal and shun the temporal. It is on the strength of this intuitional science that man knows what is mortal and what is immortal, i.e., who or which is liable to destruction and who or which is established in indestructibility. With the help of this Nitya'nitya Viveka - this discriminating judgment about mortality and immortality, man pursues the path of virtue. What is the dharma or the characteristic of the living beings? It is the endeavor to attain happiness. Why does a living being crave for happiness! - For self-preservation. Why do you eat and drink? To keep yourself alive - to attain happiness. From this you very well understand this too, that to love whatever little is lasting within your present entity - whatever is its essence, is your dharma. This dharma or sa'dhana' teaches you to keep your subtlest self aloof from all transitory objects, as the result of which your eternal self gets healthy nourishments - gets more and more developed on the path of progress. That is why, this true Sa'dhana' of the self is defined in the scriptures as the path of nourishment (pus't'ima'rga). He who does not understand or recognize this true dharma or characteristic, verily regards the body as the sole factor. I don't criticise those mentally undeveloped creatures, who regard their bodies as the summum bonum of their lives but for human beings to entertain such thoughts is nothing short of paying the mind a left-handed compliment. The funniest part of it is that such a person flouts the mind with the mind. A display of such a perverse mentality we come across in the Ca'rva'ka philosophy. To them the transitory body is the supreme entity. The materialists are reluctant to give any importance to the mind in their philosophy. Not only that, they very often even hesitate to clearly admit mind's apperception or self-consciousness. Yet these materialists sometimes want to publicise themselves as pragmatists or behaviorists. They want to say that they will not tread the path of logic and reasoning, for in that path people `make a day of night and a night of day' - "We are simple, toiling folk. We want to pass our days in peace with food to eat and clothes to wear and behind this simple demand the Supportology (!) or Practicology (!) that exists is our philosophy." Even by making such observation they get caught in their own net. In the practical field the utility of things is determined by the mind. The feasibility of the codes of procedure and conduct is also determined by the mind. `To live in peace with food to eat and clothes to wear' is also done for the satisfaction of mind. And above all, no matter what `logy' or `ism' is propounded, the supporting doctrine - the Supportology (!), must depend on imaginativeness (mental sanction). Every mental disease or every spiritual disease is not Ma'ya'va'da or illusionism. Even by keeping contact between the earthy world and the human mind, spiritual philosophy can be established. Ananda Marga is a philosophy of this type. Some of those that are comparatively imaginative regard Ka'mamaya Kos'a or the crude mind as the 'Ru'h or soul. Some identify the astral minds like atima'nasa, vijina'namaya and hiran'yamaya kos'as with it, but the real preceptor, possessed of the knowledge of the divine truth, from whom you will learn the Brahmic or intuitional knowledge, will make you understand that the soul is a lot subtler than these Kos'as or shells of the mind, each of which is mutable and so evanescent or transitory - the soul alone is eternal. So the happiness that you will get in the worship of the spiritual knowledge, will be permanent happiness, and that is why it is called A'nanda or divine bliss. A'nanda is not to be had from transitory objects. The transitory or temporal objects will come and go; sometimes they will make you laugh and sometimes they will make you cry. No matter how endearing the temporal things be, one day they will surely and undoubtedly leave you in the lurch, and abjectly beggarly. But He will not make you wail He is an eternal, non-evolutive, immutable Entity. The Yama said, "O Naciketa', the broad gateway to the realm of God lies open before you. One who has acquired a thorough knowledge of mortal objects, has verily acquired the knowledge of the both the perishable and the imperishable ones." With the development of mental faculties as one proceeds from the transient happiness to permanent happiness or A'nanda, one gets more and more inclined towards his mental happiness in preference to the physical joy. For the love of country or many such subtle happinesses, a person makes no bones to lay down his life. These are actually the signs of preponderance of the human mind. The happiness of cats and dogs is purely physical. In such receptacles as their mental happiness cannot have the priority. Beat them and then call them to eat some delectable food, they will come running after it. But human beings are reluctant to stand the least dishonour or any little blow to their mind. A person who serves you under circumstantial pressure and keeps your mind constantly humored by his sycophancy, is actually at heart not very pleased with you. He constantly tries to escape the bondage of slavery. You cannot conquer human mind through circumstantial pressure. Through As't'a'unga Yoga, as laid down in the A'nanda Ma'rga, a Sa'dhaka, conscious of his/her body and self, can gradually awaken the dormant mental power and with the help of this developed mind he/she can eventually establish himself/herself in spiritual self. In this seity - in this characteristic self he/she gets real A'nanda. So, I say, learn the intuitional knowledge from a proper preceptor. You cannot learn this through empirical knowledge. Intuitional knowledge cannot be gained from books. For this one has to go to a preceptor with devotion and reverence. Try to awaken your latent devotional sentiment. It will come to you, if you so wish. Once the devotion is awakened, you shall get divine mercy without doubt. Mahad krpayaeva bhagavad krpa'lesha'dva' - Na'rada Bhaktisu'tra. With the attainment of only a wee bit of divine grace the ego starts disappearing from the crude human body, the Nitya'nitya Viveka gets awakened and this discriminating judgment establishes the sadhaka in the Brahmic Consciousness. Remember, in the path of meditation devotion is the paramount factor. Wherever there is devotion God's mercy is there - it has got to be. Physical attachments are very difficult to give up, they die hard. Preservation of the crude body and attachment to the body are not one and the same thing. But where the preservation of the body is not jeopardized, or does not stand in danger, even then people are surprisingly attached to their physical body. At the time of an earthquake a mother runs out of the house, leaving her sleeping child in bed and then half way down when the thought of her child arises in her mind, she runs back again to save her child. The quicker the mother's remembrance of her child, the less her attraction for her own body. A mother who is above such attraction will think of her child first and take it away along with her. Through proper Sa'dhana' alone one is able to conquer such bodily and all sorts of attachments. All bondages of sensuous attractions of those that have been able to awaken their subtle selves through A'nanda Ma'rga As'ta'ungika Sa'dhana', are bound to be resolved. Anyatra dharma'danyatra'dharmadanyatra'sma't krta'krta't Anyatra bhu'ta'cca bhavya'cca yattat pashyasi tadvada. What is Supreme or Parama Brahma? How does He look like? This you cannot know through the so-called, ritualistic religion. Shra'ddhakriya' or post-obit ceremonies and rituals for the souls of the dead, Sha'ntikriya' or ceremonious propitiation of deities and evil planets, ceremonial fasts, sacrificial fire or oblation (Yajina) and various other social and popular extroversive, ritualistic functions and ceremonies with flowers, Bilvapatra (Aegle folia), water of the Ganges etc. - none of these can attain you Brahma, for these ceremonies are external and showy. How can you reach the Life of your life, the Soul of your soul with these showy and superficial paraphernalia? Three entities eventually emerge, wherever these rituals take place - religious ceremony, the fruit or reward of such a religious ceremony and persons who organize the religious ceremony. For the sake of crude, external, material gains the authors of these so-called religious ceremonies; perform these rituals. Really speaking, the word, Dharma, should not be associated with these ceremonies. Dharma is the spiritual meditation that a sadhaka does for the attainment of Sagun'a Brahma, the source of Infinite Bliss. And how about Nirgun'a Brahma? Although I cannot but call the effort for the attainment of Nirgun'a Brahma also dharma in the popular language, yet He is actually not conformable to dharma? Then is He conformable to adharma - the negation of dharma? No. He is not that, too, He does not come under any of the two categories. Dharma and adharma are both attributive (subjectivated and objectivated sentiments). All attributive sentiments fall within the scope of mind - fall in the net of causality. Nirgun'a Brahma is beyond the ambit of causality. He is above Dharma and Adharma. He is none of whatever had ever been created, or of whatever have been or will be created. Each of these is the objectivated manifestation of Sagun'a Brahma, but in Nirgun'a Brahma exists neither antecedence nor impedence, neither gain* nor loss* - nor accumulation either (there is no question of creation of the third as the result of the union of the two)*. Naciketa' prays to Yama, "O Lord of Death! I want to get established in the Nirgun'a Brahma, who is beyond all attributes - beyond to-be and not-to-be. Please tell me something about Him." Yama replies, Sarve veda' yat padama'mananti tapa'm'si sarva'n'i ca yadvadanti Yadicchanto Brahmacaryaincaranti tatte padam' sam'grahen'a vraviimyomityetat. "In every veda the position which hath been the supreme factor of contemplation, for the realization of which the ascetics take to meditation, for the attainment of which the Brahmaca'riis (Those who remain in constant cosmic ideation) take the vow of Brahmacarya (The act of a Brahmaca'rii) - in reference to that super-exalted Position, I pronounce to you the word Onm'ka'ra, which stands for it." Tasya va'caka pran'avah. * Saincay apacaya and upacaya in Samskrta. Really speaking, there is no word in the language like Onm'ka'ra, more suitable to the explanation of Brahma, for the state of Nirgun'a is inexplicable. Although one may try to explain the state of Sagun'a, yet there is no feasible way other than the use of Onm'ka'ra to explain His initial expression - indeed there is no other choice. Onm'ka'ra as a term of expression is a wonderful unifying link between Nirgun'a and Sagun'a Brahma. In the written language only a dot (.) is used for Nirgun'a Brahma. (Om) is used for the Sonic manifestation of Sagun'a Brahma and the phonic sign ([dot and crescent]) is symbolic of the expression, which is just about to take place. Etaddhyeva'ks'aram' Brahma etadeva'ks'aramparam Etaddhyeva'ks'aram' jina'tva' yoyadicchati tasya tat. This Onm'ka'ra is the first expression of the Brahmic glory and that is why, it is known as the Sound-Brahma. It occupies the topmost position, for the ultimate cause of Creation, Preservation, and Destruction is inherent in its three letters, viz., [Bengali character] (a) + [Bengali character] (u=oo) + [Bengali character] (ma). One who has known and heard this Onm'ka'ra, echoing in the vast sky as the Macrosonic phenomenon and the mental sky as the Micro-sonic one, has indeed caught the very essence of essences right in the palm of one's hand. Here one should bear in mind that when Onm'ka'ra stands for sound, to know it then is to hear or pronounce it. When Onm'ka'ra is pronounced or sounded in the Brahmic Mind itself, it is then meaningless for the Sa'dhaka to pronounce it during his meditation of Onm'ka'ra. The sadhana of Onm'ka'ra means the endeavor to hear that sound. That is why, in A'nanda Ma'rga Onm'ka'ra is not a mantra (an incantation of invocation) for chanting but for hearing. Hearing or surrendering to this Onm'ka'ra, which is the direct concomitant of the Brahmic nucleus, the Purus'ottama, is to attain Him, and attaining Him means there is nothing else to be desired. Collectively or individually He is everything. Nothing is outside Him. He who seeks Him is really wise, for attaining Him means attaining all. Incidentally there is a beautiful story in the Ra'ma'yan'a. Once Ra'ma and Laks'man'a were sailing in a boat towards Mithila across the Ganges. So far as the story goes, the boat turned into gold with touch of Rama's feet. When the boat reached the other end of the bank, the wife of the boatman came to know about this miracle. Down she brought all the woods and timbers from the house and started turning them into gold by bringing them into contact with Ra'ma's feet. Noticing the foolishness of his wife the boatman counselled her, "Look here, how long are you going to toil like this? Act wisely. Take refuge under those feet, which have such miraculous power. If you do so, you will be able to turn any worldly object into gold at will." Taking His refuge means merging one's egotistic vanity in Him. The attainment of Brahma is difficult for those who want to work out the profit and loss of "what shall I get out of this attainment." If a person, while trying to surrender him/her self to Him, is conscious of his/her petty ego's profit and loss, then how can he/she dedicate his/her petty ego to Him? His worm-eaten mental flower shall not be worthy for worshipping the Lord. Entertaining no desire for sensuous happiness a man has to surrender oneself to the waves of the inscrutable Supreme Fountain-head, Brahma. This total dedication - this self-surrender is the sentiment of Shrii Ra'dha' (the personified Love Sublime), her sole world. Gopiigan kare yabe krs'n'a-darashan. Sukha-va'incha' na'hi sukh pa'y kotiigun'. Gopii darashane krs'n'er ye a'nanda hay. Tadapeks'a' kotiigun' gopii a'sva'daya. - Caetanya Carita'mrta. Endless joy unsought-for lies When Krs'n'a's sight fills Gopi's eyes. The sight of Milkmaids, Krs'n'a's joy, Multifold more do they enjoy. A selfless devotee, bathed in the purity of devotion, wants nothing for himself. He wants only Parama Purus'a in exchange of his own self. At the time of merger as he identifies himself with Him, he tastes of the boundless bliss. The pleasant waves of sensation take place in the psychic body of the Supreme Entity on getting back his devotee in His own state of Consciousness, are a lot more in evidence in that of the self-immolating Sa'dhaka. Etada'lambanam' shres't'hametada'lambanamparam Etada'lambanam' jina'tva' Brahmaloke mahiiyate. The foremost pivot of a living being is this Onm'ka'ra. This Onm'ka'ra - this super-exalted state of the microcosm, is verily the Brahma Himself. The one who has realized or held on to this prop, get gloriously installed in Brahmic sphere. This Onm'ka'ra-Brahma is an Aseity. In no circumstances can He be lost. Na jayate mriyate va' vipashcinna'yam' kutashcinna vabhu'va kashcit Ajo nityah sha'shvat'oyam' pura'n'o na hanyate hanyama'ne shariire. This Onm'ka'ra-Brahma is not subject to birth or death. His existence is beyond the precincts of life and death. How is birth possible of an entity, who is supra-temporal? When will He take birth? Aren't place and person necessary for a life to be born? That which is the Absolute Truth, can never be subject to time, space or person. That is why, the soul is free from birth and death. Death occurs to relative entities, not to consciousness. No birth is possible for the one, which is immutable, i.e., which has no second existence, and such an impeccable entity cannot be anything but the soul. The natural tendencies of worldly objects are: The death of one brings about the birth of another, the renunciation of one form begets the formation of another, the loss of one means the gain of another. In this endless process of building and re-building of the successive order the one that remains, we call, new or the new-born. We cannot call Brahma new, for He is not the effect of any previous cause. Through this process of building and re-building the whimsical hand of time has not been able to touch Him, for He is birthless, eternal and sempiternal aeon. Through the destruction of this physical body, i.e., through its metamorphosis He is neither destroyed, nor gets transformed. Hanta' cenmanyate hantum' hatashcenmanyate hatam Ubhao tao vija'niito na'yam' hanti na hanyate. When a murderer strikes to kill, he does not know or understand that he has no power to murder anybody. The doomed, dying man also thinks, as though he is just about to die. But both of them are wrong. Actually no one kills any one nor any one dies. An'oran'iiya'nmahato mahiiya'na'tma'sya jantornihito guha'ya'm Tamakratuh pashyati biitashoko dha'tuprasa'da'nmahima'nama'tmanah. This A'tma' or Soul, which is indestructible - which is immortal, is smaller than the molecule or atom, smaller than the small ultra-microscopic. Due to its smallness you cannot feel it with your sensory power. In the language of science, if you take molecule as the English equivalent of An'u, you will find a series of other things, even smaller than the atom, like proton, neutron, electron, etc., which are too subtle for your senses to grasp. Apprehension is possible only through the power of imagination. If you further try to analyse them, your imagination will stop functioning or will be compelled to get engrossed in a deep reverie. On the last Pha'lgun'ii Pu'rn'ima' (the full-moon of the month of Phalguna) I told you that the apprehending capacity of your organs for the small and the big things was limited. The organ concerned can apprehend only a particular wave-length, i.e., from one particular point of movement to another particular point, neither more nor less. Just as the soul is the molecule of the molecule on one hand, similarly it is greater than the great on the other. This being ultrasensual, you cannot apprehend it as it is. Just as you cannot see things properly in a dim light, similarly a blazing light dazzles your vision and you cannot see either. The soul abides in your mental horizon as the knower of your world of imagination and as the certifying witness or your existence. If you direct your sentimental entity towards Its great sentiment, then your emotion or thought, being on the higher plane, loses its pettiness. Your existence then is hardly distinguishable from It. If you direct your sentimental entity towards Its micro-atomic sentiment, then also your mind goes out of action. If you cherish the sentiment of attaining Him, you will have to be devoid of all sensuous desires by carefully and deftly bringing under control the selfish, individualistic frivolities of your mind. In such an event you attraction for the finite objects will disappear. You will bask in the sunshine of Macrocosmic favor. Your mind will then be installed in the super-celestial region of abiding tranquility beyond the pale of weal or woe. Then alone you will be free from grief - then alone you will realize that Grand Glorious Brahma. A'siino du'ram' vrajati shaya'no ya'ti sarvatah Kastammada'madandevam' madanyo jina'tumarhati. He remains covert in your existential 'I'-feeling. But does He really remain at one place? In your mind you go out to London or America in a jiffy. But who actually goes there? Your objective mind of course - the mind, which is His object. Along with the mental travel to and fro, His knowership also remains, does it not? Now you understand that, inwardly and on His own, He goes on traversing distant and yet more distant countries. When the mind sleeps i.e., when the organs are inactive and all epithymetic actions (desires) are also at a standstill, He is supposed to be asleep also in the mind, isn't He? Well, does He have any movement? Yes, of course He has His movements. He is the Omneity - the all knowing seed. Even without an object He maintains His Supreme Existence. So you see, you cannot bind him with a single strand of quality. He imbibes different contrary attributes. Your mind, however, cannot have two contrary qualities like the refulgence of pleasure and the shadow of pain simultaneously. His mind being free from any singular bondage. He alone has been able to become the ultimate refuge of all kinds of contradictory objects. He is the wonderful conglomeration of pride and non-pride. The Yama said, 'None but I can attain Him'. Yama means controller. The Yama is the prototype of restraint. Really speaking, without 'Yama' or regulated sadhana, it is impossible to attain Him. A'tma or Soul is not attainable by one devoid of control. You will certainly realize the significance of this observation after you have pursued the path of sa'dhana' for some time. But then I have already told you many a time and I repeat again that restraint does not mean running away, giving up everything. Adequate and proper use of everything is what is called restraint. You can honour adequately every obligation of domestic life but you must never lose your head. When the animal instinct of hunger is there, you must eat but you must not invite a disease by taking excessive food out of greed. Ashriiram' shariires'vanavasthes'vavasthitam Maha'ntam' vibhuma'tma'nam' matva' dhiiro na shocati. Brahma, Who has within Him the countless number of contradictory attributes, is an incorporeal entity due to His limitlessness. He has neither a body nor a receptacle. It just cannot be nor is there any need for it. But how about these countless fragmentary manifestations which do have their bodies and yet they are His manifestations and are all within Him? Yes, that is the reason why He is the possessor of countless bodies, being bodiless Himself.The spiritual entity is not subject to any time, place or person, but the finite unit entities are their cooperative creations. He, being beyond their purview, i.e., outside the scope of mind, is absolutely free from all sorts of mental modifications of pleasure and pain. So one who identifies oneself with Him after attaining Him, becomes free from all sorts of pain. His mind gets stilled. He merges in the Macrocosmic Consciousness. Have seen Thy countless forms, O Formless One! Now tell us, O Lord, what's there to be seen and won. -A'nandamu'rti. Now take His endless forms. Haven't they got any utility? For the benefit and salvation of human beings, He has been teaching Him through the media of limitless forms. So the existence of every created thing in this world has its value - has its mundane as well as spiritual utility. None is useless - none is a burden on the world. Knowingly or unknowingly all are working together as one beautiful team and one mind for the collective good of all. All are beaming in their self-surging glory. The giver knows the efficacy of charity, since the receiver is there. The advanced person is getting an opportunity to serve, since the backward man is there. He has evolved so many forms as per necessity. In each of these forms we see the different contours of His love, get scope for learning many things and are getting impetus to move towards Him. His radiance is being refracted through the veins and veinules, molecules and atoms of every evolved object. Treating every microcosmic tendency as His own object for the good of the world, He has been afflicting Himself day in and day out with the painful affliction of their lives, - suffering for them, and His diverse, manifested organisms are bowing down in reverence to His glory. All the loquacity of these ignorant beings is getting silenced before His exalted greatness. What a non-sa'dhaka regards as his or her wealth, son, husband etc., are in the eyes of a sa'dhaka, but the waves or the brilliant, activated expressions of the Cosmic Sea, wherein the sa'dhaka feels himself/herself consciously installed. He knows that the very Sea, in which or on whose breast those expressions are waking up and dozing off, is to him the Truth itself, - has been making the beauty of his soul more charming every moment by encompassing him form all the ten directions. In that Sea of Love he has fearlessly laid afloat the heavy onus of his own entity. Na'yama'tma' pravacanena labhyo na medhaya' na bahuna' shrutena Yamevaes'a vrnute tena labhyastasyaes'a a'tma' vivrn'ute tanu'm' sva'm. The Supreme dharma - the paramount act, of merging one's self in the Absolute Entity in full realization of Its charm, will not be accomplished by mere listening to religious dissertations. You must have noticed, there are many people in our society that constantly keep track of great men and run up to them soliciting, "Give us some advice. Tell us something about religion." Such religious discourses will cut no ice, if not substantiated by sa'dhana'. It is wrong to think that Parama Purus'a is realizable by man through empirical knowledge or through study of a few dozens of philosophical books, rather, there is a greater possibility of one's receding from the path of spirituality. In such a case vanity becomes the chief characteristic of his nature. Brahma or the Supreme Entity cannot be attained through tall religious overtures to the human society nor through interesting recapitulations before it as to which and which great man said such and such things, - as to how they walked, or through writing volumes of books. Do not entertain such silly ideas that you can hit the bull's eye so cheaply by dint of your intellect, for you shall not achieve Him through such shady means. To attain Brahma you shall have to do Sa'dhana' or spiritual meditation. You should make Him the only goal of your life. For this you require integrity, devotion and singular and earnest love for Him. He is not attainable without reverence and unflagging and unflinching devotion. When the devotional depth will come, love, too, will be out-brimming with high sentiments - will be full and over-flowing. When love will reach its completeness - its saturation point, self-immolation will become easy and simple. In that state alone will come your final realization of the Supreme Consciousness. Where `I' is, `He' is not ... where `He' is, `I' is not. Remember, devotion is the pre-requisite of Sa'dhana'. Maturity of devotion is love and maturity of love is He. Sa iishvara anirvacaniiya parama premasvaru'pa. Only whole-hearted love can bind Him. When you will be able to do so, you will see, what you have in bondage is the Love Divine. Paripu'rn'a krs'n'aprapti sei prema haete. Sei preme'ba'indha' krs'n'a kahe Bha'gavate. -Krs'n'ada'sa Kavira'ja To Love sincere Lord Krs'n'a clings Bound to love, so Bha'gavata* sings Krs'n'a realized through such a love For Love is Krs'n'a, Krs'n'a, Love. * Scriptures of the Vaes'n'ava sect. Na'virato dushcarita'nna'nna'sha'nto na'sama'hitah Na'sha'ntama'naso va'pi prajina'nenaenama'pnuya't. Sensuous intellect is an inert intellect. Sensuous movements are efferent. So the intellect of the sensuous man is wasted over external objects. The human mind that has in it an unbridled desire for mundane pleasure is never at peace. In such a state no one can attain Brahma. When the mind preoccupied with finite objects, can one get the integrated whole? When your longing is towards the crude, you will undoubtedly become crudified yourself. Your mind will leap from one crude desire to another - will run form one object after another in a wild pursuit. Such is the way of the materialistic, isn't it? But an aspirant, being in the midst of all and making the right use of everything, proceeds towards the supreme goal. Learn the Intuitional Science from the competent preceptor and proceed accordingly. Yasya Brahma ca ks'atrainca ubhe bhavata odanam Mrtyuryasyopasecanam' ka ittha' veda yatra sah. Nirgun'a Brahma (or the Supreme, unsubjectivated Pure Consciousness) is your supreme goal. Even Sagun'a Brahma (the Subjectivated Transcendentality) is devoured by Nirgun'a. The Brahma-Sa'dhaka knows that Sagun'a Brahma, who is a composite of cognitive faculty and operative principle - a combination of introversive consciousness and introversive force, eventually turns into food for the Nirgun'a Brahma. That is to say, with His death all His feelings and emotions also disappear and so death serves as ghee (clarified butter) for the ultimate food of the Nirgun'a. Just as flour alone does not make a good food by itself and it requires ghee to make eatable, similarly the ghee-like death makes the Consciousness-cum-principle like food delectable and palatable to the Nirgun'a Brahma. So I say that this death too is a benevolent system. When the overall sentiment (the subjectivated and objectivated state) of Sagun'a Brahma merges in the Nirgun'a Brahma, that is to say, when a Sa'dhaka attains salvation, soleness or absolute identity with the Divine Essence, i.e., final liberation, all the onus of his ego lightens. Prakrti, the xylem or the root or plastic cause of creation, can no more throw him into the pit of pleasure and pain. So in order to attain Him - whom you cannot attain through empirical or worldly knowledge anyhow, - get busy and be up and doing from this very moment and get proper guidance from a proper preceptor. A'nanda Pu'rn'ima' 1956 Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 3