The Story Of Ganga's Journey - Pujya Swami Dayananda

Human destiny is only in knowing the source of one's existence. That alone satisfies a person. What one wants to become is that person in whom there will be no more attempts to 'become'.

Like even a river once it has started its journey, it has to reach the ocean, the source form which it is born originally. It dose not rest content. Take the river Ganges. She is a becoming river. Wanting to reach somewhere she rushes downwards, covering distances, circling mountains, going round boulders and filling up valleys. Her going further does not stop! Where does she want to go? She wants to go to that place where there is no further going. Then she can relax and stop flowing.

Even though you may build dams and stop her flow, she is not going to stop thinking. "Now a dam is built across. What can I do? Now let me sit quiet." No. She goes on banging the walls of the dam because she knows, "It is after all made by a PWD contractor. It will give way sooner or later." So she bangs the walls all the time. She is not going to take it low. She must find her level with the ocean. Once she sights the ocean, it is a sight to see!

When you go to Calcutta, visit Gangasagar. There you do not know whether the Ganges reaches the ocean or the ocean comes and receives the Ganges. Half way the ocean comes. That is why five miles away from the ocean the water of the Ganges is salty. The ocean also seems to be very loving and with open hands embraces and gets into her. It seems the very sight of the ocean is enough for the Ganges or any river to give up all atempts to reach. The job is over now. The river has made it. It rests for ever.

So too the human heart being what it is, it is conscious of itself as a person and in that inner person one sees a lack and want. One cannot accept that limitation. One cannot accept a self- dependence upon anything for one's security, joy and fullness. Necessarily one is going to work for one thing or another all the time till one dies. In harness one dies. Nobody dies saying I have made it. Unless one has made it. That is because the love to be full and free is the beginning of the very journey of all. In fact that was the very cause of the journey. Once one is born, one has this self-dissatisfaction and self non-acceptance. It is due to self ignorance.

So the process of becoming full and complete begins the journey. "I" is a becoming "I". So this becoming "I" becomes one who does not need to become anymore. The becoming 'I' is insecure, wanting. In anyway you look at a person, he is wanting.

He is wanting in terms of time because he is a mortal. The mortal "I" wants to be free from mortality. The ignorant 'I' wants to be knowledgeable. How knowledgeable? Without being ignorant anymore. The unhappy "I" wants to be the happy "I". The incomplete "I" wants to be the whole "I". Like this, there is a struggle going on now to "become", like the Ganges rushing towards its source. The struggle ends when the Ganges discovers its identity with the totality, its source.

Here every one has to discern that by the process of "becoming" I am not going to become that person I want to be. It is by knowing that I am never away from the total and I am identical with the total. In this knowledge the journey of seeking ends.

 
 

Can You Judge By Conduct - Pujya Swami Dayananda

If a person has self-knowledge, how can his conduct be questionable? It is only an argument. It is a supposition. Suppose there is such a person. If he is committed to the pursuit of or has understood Ishvara properly as non-separate from ¡tm¡, then who can evaluate his conduct? His ego, ahankara, is not there but because of some prior habits picked up from his grandfather, etc., he may continue to do certain things which are looked upon as questionable. A
story is told in the Mahabharata that illusrates this.

A brahmana was sitting under a tree invoking the Lord through tapasin the form of prayers and meditation. In the process he developed some powers which he himself did not know about. One day, when he was sitting under a tree, a crane on top of the tree dropped some droppings on him. He looked at it with angry eyes and the crane was burnt to ashes. Then he knew he had this power.

He used to go for bhiksha daily
to the same village. Previously he was humble like a sadhu, but once he got the power, he became very proud. He went and asked for bhiksha and
the woman made him wait for one hour before serving him. He was very angry and asked her how she could make him wait like that. She said that she was doing her duties which was more important.

He said, "Do you know who you are talking to?"

She said, "Yes I know, but I am no crane."

He asked, "How do you know about the crane?"

She told him, "Go to the butcher and ask him."

He went to the butcher's place. The butcher was busy serving his old and ailing father and so the br¡hma¸ahad to wait again. He was furious and asked the butcher why he had made him wait.

Then the butcher said, "Did that woman send you here?"

The lesson is, "do not judge people by what they do." One was a house-wife and the other a butcher, but they were both doing their jobs and were definitely better than the brahmin with all his prayers and meditations.

He is to be considered a sadhu because when he has properly understood, and is pursuing knowledge, his improper conduct is not going to continue. How can it? If you analyze all wrong conduct, it is either a habit or a real crime. Habit will naturally drop off in time. Crimes are always centered on the person who is insecure, the limited 'I'. Because he is so highly insecure, his behaviour becomes aggressive. If he has devotion to Ishvara, in the very acceptance of Ishvara his ego gets diluted. And in the pursuit of knowledge of Ishvara, it gets even further diluted. Thereby all the tendencies based upon fear, tendencies to cheat, to deceive, to hurt, naturally drop off.

To give an example. When a cotton cluster is thinned out so that it becomes fluffy cotton fibres, all the particles sticking to the cotton drop off. You cannot easily remove them one by one but once the cotton fibres are separated, you find all the particles drop down because there is nothing for them to stick to. The ego too, once diluted, cannot hold on to these tendencies. They all drop off because fear and selfishness which are at the centre of all crimes, are due to ego. If that ego is diluted, where is the question of these things sticking there?

Nidhidhyasanam -Pujya Swami Dayananda

Matsthani sarvabhutani ......................... Is there any distance in existence of two different objects ? Existence in the sense of being there. Space is, time is, sun is, moon is, earth is. On the earth - mountain is, valley is, the tree is, the cow is, the woman is, the child is, man is. Is there any difference in the isness ? ........ In the appreciation of asti - is, there is no visesam. This undifferentiated astitvam, isness , is sat ......... So too, the body is. Each cell in the body is, a perception is, perceived object is, the thought is, the thought is .... Knower of the thought is .... the content of the knower, the meaning of the word "I" is what is that ? The conscious knowner enjoys his being in New York. The knower changes, as knower of this, as seer, as hearer, what is it, that is undifferenciated in the knower ? That means seer is ...... hearer is .... doer is .... experiencer is ..... The undifferentiated ,being, the meaning of I is,what is.

 The conscious knower has its content in consciousness which is the satta samanyam, the basic existence is. Cit samanyam ....... consciousness.Knower, hearer, seer, doer is. A thought cognitive or collative, a thought is but consciousness. The object of thought is consciousness. Space is consciousness, time is consciousness, sun is consciousness, sun consciousness is, space consciousness is, time consciousness is. Is consciousness qualified by sun, by time, by mountain, by valley, by cow, by child, by a woman, by this body, by a man, by ears, by eyes, by a sense of smell, sense of taste, sense of touch, by thought, by knower ? Unqualified is consiousness, qualified as knower, acknowledged as known ....... Is there anything outside is consciousness ? Saccidatma, masthani sarva bhutani ...... suksma bhutani ......... sthula bhutani ...... suksma bhautikani, sthula bhautikani, sarva bhutani.

 There is nothing besides sat and cit. Sat is cit. Nothing beyond saccit. There is nothing besides saccit. There is nothing more then saccit ! .......Matsthani sarva bhutani ............... This "Is" consciousness na ca matsthani. All that is, is me. Is consciousness, undivided, non - dual whole ananda - saccidanandarupoham .......... saccidanandarupoham .......... ahamevahamvyayah ............ Bhagavan says - masthani sarva bhutani ! When we recognise the meaning of the sentence, you say - masthani sarva bhutani ! ...........The knower is born of the saccit as the pot is born of the clay, the knower is born of saccit. The knower resolves in you. The knower, the hearer is born of me saccit. Satcit varenyam. Resolves unto you saccit ! No gain, no loss. A pot is born of me, saccit, sustained by me, saccit,resolves unto me. An object of thought is born of saccit, sustained by me saccit, unto you resolves ....... From whom the pot is born, the knower is born, the known is born , is you ,saccit. By whom the born is sustained, is you ......... saccit .......Unto whom what is born, what has being, goes back, that is you saccit ........ You are ........... There is nothing outside ..........saccidanandarupoham .......... saccidanandarupoham ...... ahamevahamavyayah ......... ahamevahamavyayah .......... ahamevahamavyayah ........... OM .......... OM ............ OM ................. OM ...........

  
 

OM Santih Santih Santih

 
 

Meditation - Pujya Swami Dayananda

OM ................. OM ................... In dream the world created and experienced is yourself. As an individual you are the creator. You have the knowledge of what is created and are a material cause .The creator, you ,pervade the whole jagat. As the creator, your knowledge is manifest in the form of jagat. There is nothing outside your knowledge. The whole jagat is manifestation of your knowledge. The whole jagat is you, the knowledgeable you ........ When we think of the jagat, the waking, isvara comes into the picture. His knowledge, all knowledge, manifests in the form of jagat. (Like you are isvara for the person you see in the dream.) His all knowledge manifests in the form of space. Space is isvara, time is isvara, the galaxies are isvara, the sun is isvara, and everything that is here - all forces, laws are nothing but isvara. Physical laws, biological laws, physiological order, knowing, not knowing. Knowing properly, knowing improperly, remembering, not remembering, all these laws and faculties, body, life, death - everything is knowledge manifest. But the knowledge which manifests is clear to me, when there is appreciation of order on my part. The tree is always the tree ...... A leaf is a leaf ,order and that is knowledge.

 The whole jagat is isvara ,you have to appreciate this fact. As soon as a situation we are in, we appreciate isvara who is creation, projection, manifestation of knowledge. My body, your body, my mind, senses, your mind, senses, all included. One step further if we go, the knowledge that is isvara is but caitanya, jnanam as such, being not separate from consciousness. Limited knowledge or all knowledge, knowledge is not separate form consciousness - mithya.The manifest knowledge is equally mithya. Where there is mithya,there is a question of caitanya ! The consciousness which is, which gives existence to knowledge and manifest form of knowledge, that sat is present in knowledge before the creation and after the projection, that sat continues to be. The space - space is,is time, is sun, is moon, is earth, is this body, is this mind, is this memory, is ignorance, is pervades, is you, is consciousness, is consciousness pervades, is consciousness is isvara, is consciousness is you and the Lord says - matsthani sarva bhutani I also say matsthani sarva bhutani - saccidanandarupoham .... soham ..... Spacially limitless, timewise limitless, objectwise limitless. It is present in every object. You are anandah. Isvara is anandah ...... saccidanandarupoham ...... soham ..... saccidanandarupoham ...... soham ..... saccidanandarupoham ........ OM .......... OM ..........OM .......... OM ............ OM .............. OM ............ OM .............

 
 

  OM Santih Santih Santih

 
 

The Spiritual Quest

What are we searching for? Purnata - permanent security, fullness, wholeness, peace, happiness, not being affected by the situations, sukha prapti, dukha nivritti (stories …

Let us understand this clearly. When do we want this purnata?

For 1/2 an hour daily, only when I am praying, only when I am with my children, only … No we want peace and happiness 100% of the time, in 100% situations or places, with everybody. We can't seem to settle for less.

 
 

Where are we looking? Job, Spouse, Children, Health, Wealth, Possessions, Friends, Relatives, Titles and position (stories … make-up one… this guy as a child studies hard, thought he would be better by getting a job, got a good one, then found in polluted area, so changed job, then felt I will feel better if I get good wife, got married, two years were wonderful … then she wanted him to change, he wanted her to change … they would fight, thought we will be better if we have children, got two good children… busy with them… now they are growing, thought we will be better with our own house … do got a house… made it comfortable… a home, now got children settled … now bored…. He opened a shop… still the feeling did not go. He started doing seva … but he did not get the appreciation he wanted and so he left it. Now Little scared of disease, took to yoga and exercise, still the wanting feeling inside did not go… none of this works he thought… all give satisfaction only for some time…

 
 

One day he was feeling very restless, discontented and insecure. He thought to himself, even when I was a young man I felt like this. Now after so many years, I have achieved, so much, I have learned so much, I have done so much … but still this feeling inside me has not changed … I still feel restless, I still feel discontented, I still feel insecure. The feelings goes away for a little while, when I get what I want, but then I am back to square one. Where am I going to find a permanent solution? How will I get permanent happiness? How will this feelings of insecurity go away?"

 
 

This man has come to a very important juncture in his life. So he is searching for SECURITY and COMPLETENESS thru different activities of pravritti and nivritti - acquiring and giving up. So the important point here is that behind his activities is the conclusion that 'I AM INSECURE', 'I AM INCOMPLETE'. When will you search for something? Only when you conclude that you don't have it. Because he finds himself incomplete… meaning centered on himself is this sense of incompleteness … so he seeks a solution … he wants to see himself complete and he seeks a solution OUTSIDE … in everything outside himself …. He seeks through power, wealth, family, friends, possessions, relatives, titles and position, adventure and travelling … the list is endless. He is very creative, in creating for himself, situation in which to escape his basic sense of incompleteness and insecurity.

 
 

So this man found that ACQUIRING or GIVING UP ACTIVTIES, OBJECTS and SITUATION DOES NOT SOLVE HIS PROBLEM of seeing himself as INSECURE and INCOMPLETE. So he is face to face with the fundamental problem of humanity … the problem of the incomplete self.

 
 

Let us pause and understand an important point.

 
 

Really speaking what I want is not the different objects and activities … what I want is to find myself SECURE and COMPLETE.

 
 

Can we find it there? No matter how much and how long we search for happiness, security, purnata through different activities, objects, situations we will find that they offer only a TEMPORARY SOLUTION.

 
 

Why? Because everything that we know, or can know is SUBJECT TO TIME - someday or the other the situation will change. Your house can be destroyed in a natural calamity. Your family can ignore you. Your friends can leave you. Somebody else can occupy your position of power at work. Your spouse can get sick. Or worse still your mood can change. I love gulab jamun. Today I am happy I have got Gulab jamun. I am waiting to put it in mouth … the phone rings and I am informed my best friend just dies in an accident. Will I able able to eat the gulab jamun?

 
 

So this is first step … the discovery that no matter what activities I do, no matter how many great relationships I have, no matter how much power and wealth I wield … still the feeling of incompleteness and insecurity cannot go.

 
 

Why? Because I cannot hide from my knowledge, that everything is being devoured by the jaws of time.

 
 

So what to do? Where should we look? Upanishad says make an inquiry … parikshya lokaan … Gita says make an inquiry … this way has not worked … what is left? Only two categories 'I and This … so far our attention directed to 'this' … this has not worked… so one has only one thing to turn to and that is "I".

 
 

A Story The Happiest Man (Sadhana Mantra)

 
 

Once Upon a time, an emperor was going out in the evening. At the same time an old man was also going out. It was getting dark. The emperor was not able to see the old man, nor was the old man able to see the emperor.

 
 

Upon knocking into the old man, the emperor asked in anger, "Who is it?'

 
 

The old man said, "An emperor".

 
 

The emperor got upset. Because he was the only emperor, so how did this other emperor land up here. So he turned back and questioned, "You are emperor of which state? Who do you reign over?

 
 

The old man replied, 'Over myself'.

 
 

The emperor was wonder-struck!

 
 

Is it not true? The one who rules over himself, one who is his own emperor, one who has come to know himself - there is no emperor like him, there is nobody else who is as content as him. The one who has discovered his happiness in his God, the one who has drowned himself in the love of God, whose desires have all died, who has understood that nobody is going to stay here forever - everybody has to go and so why get attached to one's possessions … that person is the happiest person.

 
 

The unhappiest person is the one who looks at others and does not get happy, one who is not able to digest the praise of somebody else, the who stabs another behind the back, the one who betrays the other's trust, the one who praises in front and criticizes behind the back, the one who burns in the fire of jealousy … such a person can never be happy.

 
 

So the Gita also says the same thing … you have to turn to yourself.

 
 

GITA CAN SOLVE THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM

 
 

Two type of problems: one in which solution lies outside the problem. The other is the problem for which solution is within the problem.

 
 

The problems of food, clothing, shelter are problems whose solution lies outside. If you are hungry, you have to get food and satisfy your hunger. If you need shelter, you have to find a place outside. If you are thirsty, you have to get water. In these kind of problems you have to seek a solution in the external through planning and effort.

 
 

Supposing somebody gives you four pieces of jigsaw puzzle - and you have to form the letter S. You try really hard. You are not able to get it. Then you think maybe one piece is missing. But you told none is missing. There is no need of a 5th or 6th piece. So this the kind of problem where solution is within the problem itself. This kind of problem requires a person who knows the solution - who has it in his head. So it is this kind of a problem that Gita solves.

 
 

Gita does not solve topical problems. It solves the fundamental problem of human apurnata.