Kith and kin of all

The river of human life meanders along, through many a valley, leaps over many a cliff, loses itself in many a marsh, and seeks to empty itself in the ocean of Divine Grace; though, what happens is it falls into the undrinkable expanse of salt. The flood flows from the heights to the depths; only the flames of fire do ever rise from the depths to the heights. That is why we say, jnaanaagni, the Fire of Wisdom or Realisation. Man suffers because he has developed hunger as vast as the sky, with a throat as narrow as a needle. His throat must become as vast as the earth; his heart must blossom wide through shaanthi and sahana; that is, through equanimity, and fortitude. Then the desire of man for full lasting undiluted aanandha can be attained.

Once a being has evolved into man, there is no relapse for him into lower forms of life; for man alone is capable of viveka and vichakshana (discrimination and wisdom); when he suffers, he worries why suffering has become his lot; he concludes that the cause must be sought, not in the vagaries of God or the whims of others, but in himself; if not in the present life, then in previous lives. Man alone can analyse his mental reactions and feelings and draw conclusions therefrom.

There are millions of stars scattered all over the firmament, but we have only darkness at night; during day, the sun which is a minute dot of light when compared to most of those stars gives us brilliant illumination. The reason is: the stars are far far away; but the sun is near.

Attitude of devotion makes you humble

The star of jnaana is far far away; we do not bring it near, nor attain nearness to it. We are content with the dusk, that information, skill, scholarship and intelligence provide. We do not seek the magnificent vision that intuition clarified by saadhana can confer. V. K. Rao was telling us now of the mass killings and cruelties inflicted by western races because of fear on Jews and others, of the deep discontent which afflicts the nations which went through two world wars to win the precarious peace of today. He said that the thinkers of the west are turning more and more to the East to learn the art of keeping peace and winning peace, indwelling undisturbed Peace — Prashaanthi.

A lion saw its image in the limpid lake; it grew envious of another lion as strong, as young, as fierce as itself; it essayed to destroy it, by jumping upon it and tearing it to pieces. It was drowned in the process; that is the fruit of envy. Others, who are our own images, arouse envy and lead to disaster. Bhakthi or the attitude of devotion and dedication makes you humble and kills envy; jnaana or the awareness of your being an integral part of God, who is all this, makes you kin with all, and there is no place for distinction, which breeds envy.

Harischandra stuck to truth and became immortal; Karna stuck to dhaana (charity) rejoicing at the chance to be of service to those in distress, and he achieved immortality. Do not accumulate impediments; renounce little by little and get into the attitude of sacrifice. Try to be of help to others to the extent of your capabilities. To remove the darkness of ignorance, light the lamp of the heart with the oil of devotion, the wick of the Name of the Lord and ignite it with a Mahaavaakya (great Vedhic dictum). Let devotion help in leading you to God, in removing ignorance of His Glory and Omnipresence. Use it as oil for the lamp of aanandha.

Train the eye to find the Footprints of God

Rayaningar read some poems from Krishnakarnaam-ritham, where the gambols of the child Krishna are described very picturesquely. Outwardly, the stanzas appear to picture objective things, but they have a deep subjective value. You must use the objective picture as a flame to light the subjective emotion of devotion. For example, there is a stanza about the child Krishna overturning the pot of curds and running away with the ball of butter and Yashodha the mother discovering His hiding place, by means of the footprints impressed on the floor by the curd smeared soles.

The butter the Lord covets is the fruit of yoga, the final product of the churning of the mind by viveka. He loves to feast upon it; and He moves away with it into the solitude of self-realisation. We too can discover the Lord through His Footprints, which can be discovered everywhere, provided sincere search is made with trained eyes. You can find the footprints wherever there is beauty, virtue, humility, justice, truth, love and peace.

The eye has to be trained to discover the footprints of God; in this process, the mind has to be mastered. The mind is the pivot of thoughts and feelings. The mind is the thinking aspect of Brahmam, the Absolute Consciousness. The Absolute Self manifesting itself in imaginative activity is Mind. However, instead of turning towards the Absolute, it turns outward and starts using the senses as its instrument; it forgets its source, the Aathma. How and why this happens is inexplicable; we know that this happens and that it can be avoided and prevented.

The intellect cannot grasp the secret of worldly delusion, which is called maaya, for it too is bound by it. One has to transcend the intellect in order to understand it. That is a fact and the fact has to be faced. The mind is the background for the world. If thoughts and activites of the mind are sound, healthy, non-violent, filled with love, morally harmonious, then, Peace is near at hand and Brahmam (Supreme reality) can be attained. That is why saadhana is to be strictly pursued to train the mind inward, towards God, its source.