Summary: Explains that one has to enter in one’s deeper heart for the awakening. Teaches that one must seek refuge and offer oneself to the Divine, then the Divine Himself leads the way. Speaks of Jesus and the profundity of his commitment to the will of the Divine, and further of the other incarnations and the intensity of their seeking.

X reads: ‘The more the man explores within himself, the more power he finds.’ – Hazrat Inayat Khan

Exploring yourself, exploring within, exploring the depth of your being – when we say, “Seek for God within,” it is to explore for this God, this Reality: it is about yourself and about everything else, not your ego-self, but your true self. Meditation is about exploring yourself at various levels. You have different levels of consciousness – simply put, the physical, the mental and the emotional to begin with, before you can explore your depths and the greater heights. Your thoughts and your emotions: where do they come from? And then besides that, beyond that: who are you, what are you? And what is there? These are questions to be explored through meditation. You have to give it life, you have to give it faith, you have to give it your all. Meditation and the journey of sadhana is all about you, so you are required to give the whole of yourself. You require that kind of commitment, you require that kind of intensity. It is a progression of course. There is something very beautiful within you that requires to be discovered, uncovered, so you have to explore yourself. If you persevere, if you continue to pursue, if you continue to commit yourself, you will make an opening within to something deep. That gives you the evidence to carry on, and once the opening is made then you have at least tangible proof, and if you continue it becomes very active, it comes to the fore. Then you start to live from another consciousness.

So the very first step is to go ‘in’ within, even before you rise higher – then you would rise higher from the depth and not from the surface. That is why Aurobindo too talks about the psychic transformation and then the spiritual heights. When you go within and live from within, everything becomes comfortable, easy and beautiful, and external difficulties do not affect you as they would ordinarily. While when you live in the ordinary surface consciousness you are very prone to being overwhelmed by the winds of change in the outside situations, you get affected by what people say, what they don’t say – all this is the nature of surface existence. Vivekananda too talks of ‘opening in the heart’, which then makes the journey easy. That is what Christ is meaning when he says, “The kingdom of God is in your heart,” and “First find ye the kingdom of God, then all things will be added unto thee.” All of true life will then be available to you but in the most beautiful manner. You connect to the inner beauty. It does not mean that you may not end up getting crucified like Jesus – that is another matter, that is the outside world, and you may very well do! But you are connected to the source of all beauty, the Divine. Therefore He says, “First find the kingdom of God,” and “The kingdom of God is in the heart”: so the focal point is here, in the middle of the chest. That is why in our meditations I always say: come back to your heart. In our sûrya namaskâr meditation we concentrate at the sixth centre between the eyebrows to see the sun there, but the heart is the basis. From there all the different centres are available to you, even in the head and above. For the awakening of the force a sufficient inner opening is a must before that awakening happens, for that is what can make it easier and comfortable, otherwise it can get very uncomfortable.

(X reads): ‘Let the heart be opened first, then all else will follow of itself.’ – Vivekananda

Christ says the same thing, “First find the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is in your heart, then all else will be added unto thee.” The heart will open to a special way. If your heart is opened – ‘the deeper heart’ as we call it, ‘the psychic being’ as Aurobindo calls it, not the ordinary surface heart of emotions but something much deeper and extraordinary – it acts as the inner Guru, then you can never go wrong in your progress. It is called the chaitya purusha in the Upanishads, the Divine portion in you. It is a portion of God in you, its very nature is divine, Divine consciousness, and it becomes the base to work out the complete transformation and deal with things in the outside.

It frees you immediately of all complications and misunderstandings because it is all-Light, it is all-Illumination, because there is no ‘thinking out’ of what is right and wrong – it knows, it is self-light, it is Divine. One who has attained it is indeed blessed. So that is the first objective of your meditation, of your sadhana, of the work that you do. And that is why, when you do any work, remember the Divine and then do the work, as an offering unto the Divine. You do not work from and for the ego – that is the idea – because the ego can prevent you to reach there, rather the ego has to be instrumental to the Divine. That is why Krishna says in the Gîtâ, “Sarvadharmân parityajya”: give up all else, all other motives from where you work; “Mâmekaṃ œaraṇaṃ vraja”: take refuge in Me and Me alone. “Ahaṃ tvâ sarvapâpebhyo mokshayishyâmi mâ œuchaḥ”¹: I will release you from all sin, worry not; I will free you from all delusions, know that for certainty. This is the teaching and the guarantee He gives Arjuna and so he says, “Yogamâtishṭhottishṭha”²: stand up and fight even this dreadful war from Yoga, and as a means to this supreme Yoga, union with Me. Yoga is unifying yourself with the Divine at every level. The whole basis and objective of your existence is the unification with the Divine and to manifest that in your life, to live it in your words, in your actions, in your thoughts, in your interactions, in your relations – to live a life divine. If you have had a glimpse, if you have had a taste, even a little bit, you will want to have it all the time. Once you have it, then you cannot settle for anything else – that is the nature of it: nothing else is satisfying then without it. That is why those who have it have always inspired people to reach there first. Sadhana becomes very easy, becomes spontaneous from there, the whole life becomes sadhana.

When you work you offer yourself and your work to the Divine – the Divine that lives in you, abides in you, and lives in all beings and things. And so you have to see all the works in that manner. Then you do not think, ‘This is your work, this is my work, I like this work, this work I do not like.’ These differences then just cannot exist, they belong to altogether another level, another consciousness. It could be there, but when you work for the Divine then that way of thinking has no place automatically. You work in a different way. That is the basis of karmayoga, where karma is the means to unification with the Divine and His will. So Krishna says to Arjuna, “You take refuge in Me. Stand up and fight even this imperative dreadful war for Me, the Divine alone.” That is what Christ is saying also, “May Thy will be done, not my will.” He is saying the same thing. His will. He would have liked to avoid the crucifixion, and the horrendous suffering and pain that goes with it. I do not think anyone likes to get crucified, surely. It is quite a situation to be in, to say the least. He still nevertheless accepts it, it is quite amazing. For Him it cannot be anything else, his psychic is awake, he is living the Divine, his heart is open. By His very nature he cannot go against whatever be the will of the Divine. For the rest of humanity it is different. They have preferences and choices that are suitable to their petty selves, none would choose to accept something so difficult. For the person who lives in that consciousness, there is no other choice. It is not that you are helpless. No, you cannot think of anything other than living and working for the Divine, it is the nature of that consciousness. It is your divine being, and therefore you then realise what divinity is. It is God consciousness, it is God in you, the God that is present anywhere and everywhere in all beings and things.

This divinity is hidden and needs to be found and lived. So you have to explore and find it, and that is the objective of meditation. It is very simple: you seek the Divine and Divine alone, as you explore yourself in meditation. How do you do that? You watch your thoughts, you watch your emotions, feelings, passions – you watch anything and everything that comes up and keep letting them go, standing back from them within, separating yourself from them. In this way, as it were, you empty out all the stuff of the surface consciousness, of all the levels of consciousness, so that you come to a stop in yourself and then enter deep into yourself, your heart-self. It is a simple technique and method and yet it will take you to the most magnificent thing, so I keep repeating it. You do not have to have so-called ‘great’ and complicated techniques. People think that the more complicated the technique, the greater they become. No, to reach to the Divine is very simple and yet most profound. This is the practice: just letting go, standing back and separating yourself of all that appears in your mind-space – good, bad or ugly – and being centred in the heart centre, dwelling on God. It has to be repeated again and again.

Meditation initially is really a repetition, abhyâsa, practice, in which you have to invest your time and effort. It is not this technique and that technique which will make it superior. They may have their place to organise yourself, but ultimately this is the basis of all techniques. And of course there is a correct technique and approach to meditation as directed by the Guide. This is the objective of your sadhana. You get there and you will see, it will guide you to all else: “All things will be added unto thee.” So keep remembering and applying yourself, even when you rest and ultimately even in sleep you have to keep the connection through remembrance and application – keep increasing the meditation. Some have had it to a very great intensity like Ramakrishna, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Jesus and Buddha in their own ways. They cannot tolerate the superficial life, they just cannot, because all that is empty of real substance. They cannot even tolerate talk of anything else. In Ramakrishna’s life that was the extremely strong case, even so in Chaitanya’s life. They could not tolerate any other chatter, any other talk. If anybody talked of something else other than God and Reality, they just could not bear it. And so with Jesus. That is why once, when He was in satsang speaking about God, his brothers and his mother came there to see him, and his disciples told him, “Your mother and your brothers have come to see you,” he replied, “Who is my mother, who is my brother?” questioning that relationship, “These people are my mothers and brothers and sisters who are related to me in the Divine through satsang, not those relations of the flesh.” Then all relationships are only because of the Divine, for your life is only for the Divine. For Ramakrishna that is how it was. He could not tolerate, he would get upset, he just could not bear any talk other than that of God. He even said, “Then your relatives start to feel like venomous snakes.” Siddhartha walks away from family and kingdom overnight severing all earthly ties to become the Buddha and yet he is the Compassionate One. It is difficult to comprehend, but when you are there and have that kind of intensity you will realise, if you ever have that kind of intensity. You cannot keep your mind away from the thought of God, not only the mind but your whole being and soul. It comes from a different nature and consciousness.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s brother at the age of sixteen leaves home in search of God – they were two brothers and he disappeared from home forever – it is said to Pandharpur, considered to be the greatest pilgrimage in Maharashtra, where Vithala, Krishna is worshipped. So the mother, like all mothers, is very unhappy. Sometimes the Indian mothers overdo it. They have nothing else but their children to think of mostly, they have no life of their own. When they have children their whole life revolves around them. They are extremely possessive of their children and the children most times end up over-protected and pampered which makes for their weakened and dependent character and is then reflected in the society as a whole. So the elder brother disappears and she is shattered. Chaitanya, who was the younger one, Nimai was his name then, told his mother, “Do not worry, I will stay with you, I will not leave you.” It did not work out like that, of course, destiny came a calling, knocking on His heart’s door; his time too had come. His heart opened. He had to leave then. He was an incarnation. He could not stay at home, he had work to do of the highest kind. His mother was shattered, heartbroken when she heard this, and started crying. He told his mother, “If I stay here I will die.” That is how strong it becomes. He cannot bear to live a mundane existence anymore. “I have to go if you want me to live, if you want me to survive. Otherwise I cannot. I will die here in the confines of ordinary existence,” He told his mother. His mother, big-hearted as she was, had to agree for the sake of her child’s life. Same thing happened with Shankara and his mother. Then your sadhana becomes spontaneous, living and continuous, meditation techniques become superfluous. There is no place, need and utility for techniques in your life anymore. You are a living, walking, speaking, God-intoxicated existence.

(Silence)

When you are awakened within to that spontaneity, then the Divine Himself is your guide. You can never go wrong for not your mind but your inner guide, the inner Divine, leads the way, guides the way. That is why when Ramakrishna was asked – he was always in a God-intoxicated state – “Do you know God?” he said, “Yes, I know Him, I see and speak to God even more intensely and intimately than I know or speak to you. I am much closer to God than to you. My interaction and communication with Him is so much more than with you.” Ordinarily it is the other way round, human beings have no connection to God. But for Him God is so near, so intimate, more so than people are to each other.

So the first objective is to find this in yourself and in all things and hence in all your doings: while speaking, eating, listening, working, even finally sleeping, keep that in remembrance. In your work if you see the Divine, then it is meditation. It should take up the whole of your life, then the revelations come. But it requires of you that self-offering – you have to offer your ego, and the return is incomparable. One hangs onto the ego which has no value because one does not understand the preciousness of these things. That is why somehow when you get the glimpse of it and the taste of it then you would know. It is better to live for that, even though one would not find it in one life, than to live ordinarily however comfortable and pleasurable your life may be. Even if you were to struggle all your life in search of this and not find it in one life, still that life is better than having lived a most comfortable life and with utmost of pleasures which you finally lose in death anyway. All great people like Buddha, Jesus, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, have gone through many lifetimes in seeking after this and in search of this, a life of self-offering, a single-minded love for this, therefore finally to be born one life and have it, and return with it again and again as incarnations for what they are. It is the love for God, love for the Divine. Buddha also, if you read of all of his previous lives, has walked away from hearth and home in many lives in search and seeking after the Truth, giving up everything, not to find, and then in one life born as Siddhartha, he finds. All these ones have had the same profound commitment and it comes from deep within, they are not satisfied with any other kind of life. They may be materially and worldly privileged, like the Buddha, who even in many of his previous lives was a prince. And so there were others, like Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Jaina Tirthankara, all with materially privileged lives but that held no importance to them. This is so special that they held it up as the only objective in their lives and then in one life they find it. So the value of it is incomparable with anything else. That is why Krishna tells Arjuna, “Give up all else, all other seeking, all other objectives, take refuge in Me, and you will find life’s ultimate benediction, you will then have your life and all things in a very special way – Sarvadharmân parityajya mâmekaṃ œaraṇaṃ vraja, ahaṃ tvâ sarvapâpebhyo mokshayishyâmi mâ œuchaḥ.”³

In the world there are a rare few who seek it. It is not available easily to the masses, people do not even know about what is hidden in their heart, concealed behind all the surface layers of consciousness. It is only a few that are awakened to seeking after it – that itself is an awakening, inner awakening. On the other hand they might encounter or meet with someone who will inspire them to seek after it and that itself is a great blessing. Otherwise most people just pass through life completely ignorant of it, of what is concealed and contained within their own hearts. That is why Krishna tells Arjuna that ordinarily people do not know what is real and what is unreal. They live an unreal life thinking it to be real, they live the night considering it to be the day because they are totally unaware of this, they are in total darkness to this while they think they are in light! It is a tragedy.

AryaVihar
26 May 2011