Even when you attain the state of living with God and merger in a divine form (sarupya-mukti), there is still a trace of differential feeling. Just because a devotee has a form like the Lord's, one may not have the powers of creation, preservation, and destruction that the Lord has. Only when all trace of difference disappears and unity is attained, the highest stage is reached. This is real union (Sayujya). This comes of divine grace won by the essence of the spiritual practice of each; it cannot be claimed as the fruit of effort. The devotee wishes to serve the Lord as one pleases and to experience the joy of the form that one has attributed to the Lord. But the Lord, out of His grace, gives the devotee not only existence with the Lord, witnessing always the glory of the Lord, and being suffused with God-consciousness but also Sayujya - union with Him! The path of devotion results also in attainment of ultimate knowledge (Brahma-jnana). Even if the devotee does not crave it, the Lord Himself vouchsafes it to the devotee.
The mind is activity, stop, that is Pantanjali. How do we stop?
We know it from our meditation.
We begin to repeat the mantra, it keeps us awake while thoughts are coming and we cannot just stop it as we are constantly somehow involved in activity, even if we stop the activity, the mind is going on, it constantly progresses as we know, it is activity in the mind. By repeating the mantra we forget it that means we transcend the mind, there is no feeling for it, there is no time, no space and when we come back we get back with thoughts, they are part of it and it doesn't matter if we have thoughts, it is easy and effortless until we get aware of it that we have thoughts and that means we are not anymore in a state of meditation, but again in the mind and we take the mantra and begin again. That is an action of will, we want to get out of the mind.
We repeat the mantra and transcend again and it is usually done twenty minutes morning and evening and regularly. And the end we just take some time to get out of it and we stop, but open not yet the eyes to get our mind the time to turn outward again before we open the eyes.
1.2 Yoga is the control (nirodhah, regulation, channeling, mastery, integration, coordination, stilling, quieting, setting aside) of the modifications (gross and subtle thought patterns) of the mind field. (yogash chitta vritti nirodhah) (Patanjali yoga sutra)
How do we stilling, quieting the thought process, we repeat the mantra effortlessly and as Swami said, all mantras are okay.
There will be thoughts coming up but that is part of it and only when we get aware that we are not thinking the mantra, but something else, we begin with the mantra again. What is the reason? The moment when we notice there are thoughts, we get aware of the mind and the thought process and with the mantra we go inside again and transcend the thought process, it has to be easy and effortlessly and we don't need to concentrate, by repetition of the mantra the mind gets transcended and that we do twenty or thirty minutes morning and evening.
That is Patanjali. The work is in the mind field and in the thought patterns.
There will be thoughts coming up but that is part of it and only when we get aware that we are not thinking the mantra, but something else, we begin with the mantra again. What is the reason? The moment when we notice there are thoughts, we get aware of the mind and the thought process and with the mantra we go inside again and transcend the thought process, it has to be easy and effortlessly and we don't need to concentrate, by repetition of the mantra the mind gets transcended and that we do twenty or thirty minutes morning and evening.
That is Patanjali. The work is in the mind field and in the thought patterns.
The question mark stands for 'who am I?' That is the main question Swami always asked to get to the right answer and right knowledge, 'I am that'.
Even when you attain the state of living with God and merger in a divine form (sarupya-mukti), there is still a trace of differential feeling.
Baba talks about the feeling of oneness with God. To get aware of that feeling of oneness our mind has to be modified already enough, be silent inside to get aware of those subtle influences and that we are one with God, otherwise, there is no such feeling. As we are humans and we don't have yet realized the divine, we can merge by devotional singing with the divine from that is real for those who are awake and alert and see the singing not only as singing but as being one, as advaita with the Lord.
Just because a devotee has a form like the Lord's, one may not have the powers of creation, preservation, and destruction that the Lord has.
The form of the Lord is here the body, but what I just mentioned when we merge all together in the oneness of the divine, it is not the body, but a subtle body. It is the universal body of the divine when we sing together and merge in the heart.
As Swami said in the interview, he explained the Soham and he said that it means, 'I am that' and 'I am God' and 'I am Shiva'. When we looked at it in the study circle and in the text and Swami's words was the 'tat tvam asi' the Atmic principle, we remembered the 'I am that', and someone said that it is more about 'he is that' and then we noticed that there are three levels, 'I am that' is in the meditation or consciousness awareness or by singing devotional songs, we get aware of that divine love all are merging, as he is telling us, the same divine love, that is how we realize that it is the divine form and therefore, it is also true for 'thou art that' what we get in the second sentence, the 'I am God' and at that time when he said, I had the feeling who can I get aware of that? It is not even that difficult, we just have to get aware of the process and what happens during singing and when we notice what happens by singing together, it is the heart that melts, the place we meet all together is in the heart and all are the same, that is 'all are that' and it is the realization, 'I am Shiva', the place in the heart is therefore the awakening of Lord Shiva, as Baba said on another place and it means we have in his words the answer to the 'tat tvam asi'. It is amazing to get aware of it by sharing in the circle and talking about it together, the sharing in the togetherness with talking with other about it, that is the amazing experience, that we are able to talk and share that highest truth in a study circle.
Only when all trace of difference disappears and unity is attained, the highest stage is reached. This is real union (Sayujya).
If we don't know the thought patterns and how to stop the activity of the mind and to be able to go to the inwards tendencies, we will probably also not be silent enough in the mind to get aware of the oneness with the Lord. The mind has to be purified, the divine is pure love and pure truth and that we cannot perceive when the mind is too active and polluted. The active state of mind is in rajas and not sathva and only sathva knows the truth, it has to calm down and settle to be in the right state of mind to get those insights.
This comes of divine grace won by the essence of the spiritual practice of each; it cannot be claimed as the fruit of effort.
Swami explains that we get it by divine grace, but it is still by the spiritual practice and to know how to silent the thought process is spiritual practice.
Often when we talk about it, someone will respond that there has to be done nothing, because we get only the last part of the sentence, it cannot be claimed as the fruit of effort, but just as grace and so we leave it to him to shower grace, but just before he said that it is the spiritual practice that gets us there, only we cannot claim it the fruit of our effort.
With other words, he tells us we get there by spiritual practice and we win divine grace and it is by his grace we win it.
Therefore, we do spiritual practice to win divine grace. And he compared divine grace with a unlimited tank of grace and we have to get able to connect. He said that devotees look like water taps and the grace can flow like water through those taps, but we need to connect it with the divine tank of infinite grace and for that we need pure love, the pure love is the connection with the grace of God.
And if we want pure love, we need three things, we need to understand peace, we have to accept truth and we have to accept right action and only if we have those three, peace, love and right action, we are able to make the experience of pure love. If we do nothing at all and thing we deserve the grace of the divine, we are actually deluded, it is not possible to get there without purification of the mind.
Often when we talk about it, someone will respond that there has to be done nothing, because we get only the last part of the sentence, it cannot be claimed as the fruit of effort, but just as grace and so we leave it to him to shower grace, but just before he said that it is the spiritual practice that gets us there, only we cannot claim it the fruit of our effort.
With other words, he tells us we get there by spiritual practice and we win divine grace and it is by his grace we win it.
Therefore, we do spiritual practice to win divine grace. And he compared divine grace with a unlimited tank of grace and we have to get able to connect. He said that devotees look like water taps and the grace can flow like water through those taps, but we need to connect it with the divine tank of infinite grace and for that we need pure love, the pure love is the connection with the grace of God.
And if we want pure love, we need three things, we need to understand peace, we have to accept truth and we have to accept right action and only if we have those three, peace, love and right action, we are able to make the experience of pure love. If we do nothing at all and thing we deserve the grace of the divine, we are actually deluded, it is not possible to get there without purification of the mind.
The devotee wishes to serve the Lord as one pleases and to experience the joy of the form that one has attributed to the Lord.
That is what everybody does and it means some don't and that are also those who will not listen and hear it, they just think what they think is right and nothing else, whatever that means for them the attribute to the Lord, we would be surprised to see what kind of attributes that can be. But they for sure see themselves as devotees, because they have met Sai Baba a few times, whatever they have attributed to the Lord, that is a good way to see it as in our mind we can attribute about everything if we don't verify and analyse it.
But the Lord, out of His grace, gives the devotee not only existence with the Lord, witnessing always the glory of the Lord, and being suffused with God-consciousness but also Sayujya - union with Him!
What is Sayujya union? I didn't find it really translated in Google, so I just copied a text about it.
What do you mean by Vairaagyam, Sayujyam and Kaivalyam?
When you cut all your bonds of love on all the things and on all the people in this world, it is called 'Vairaagyam'. But this stage is not sufficient. The reason for this stage should be the love formed on the Lord. Due to this new bond on the Lord, all the old bonds must be cut. If the new bond does not exist and simply the old bonds are cut, that is only salvation. A stone is also having salvation because it does not have any bond on any thing or any body in this world. If one leaves the family and the house by taking Sanyasa, all that is a waste, if he has not taken the Sanyasa for the sake of the Lord. The new bond with the Lord (Bhakthi) should be the reason for the detachment from all the other bonds (Vairaagyam). Only Vairaagyam is useless without Bhakthi. If Bhakthi is achieved, Variraagyam is automatic. There is no need of any effort for attaining the Vairaagyam.
If you have tasted the divine nectar (Amrutham), you will automatically discard the other drinks. Without tasting the divine nectar, you cannot leave the drinks. Even if you leave the drinks without tasting the divine nectar, you will go to the drinks after some time with very high vigor. Therefore Vairaagyam without Bhakthi is not only waste but is also impossible. Just see this example. A young man loved a girl for the past one month. The parents are not agreeing for the marriage. But the young man cuts all his bonds, which were developed, with his parents for the past twenty-five years due to this one-month-old new bond! The million births old bonds are cut by a single new bond developed with the Lord in human form in this birth. Swami Vivekananda could cut all the family bonds for the sake of the divine work of His Satguru (Rama Krishan Paramahamsa). Similarly Gopikas could cut all the family bonds for the sake of the Lord in human form (Krishna). A small atom bomb can destroy huge mountains.
Narada wrote that one should love the Lord as a lover loves his or her darling (Jaara Vatcha). He also gave the example of Gopikas in the next Sutra (Yathaa Vraja Gopikanaam). Such l ove involves the practical sacrifice. The lover is leaving his or her parents practically to go along with his or her darling. Even if the parents threaten stating that they will not give the property if he/she marries his/her lover, the boy or the girl is prepared to leave all the property for the sake of his or her lover. When the parents manage to kill him or her, she or he is committing suicide. Therefore for the sake of the lover one can cut all the family bonds, bond with wealth and money and even the bond with the life. When you can do these things in the case of the lover, how can I believe that they are impossible things in the case of the Lord? This means that you don't have that much real love on the Lord.
Holy Jesus told that one should cut the bond even with his life for the sake of the Lord. If something is impossible, that should be impossible every where. The new love is called 'Saayujyam' and 'Kaivalyam'. Saayujyam means becoming close to the Lord. Kaivalyam means becoming one with the Lord. Kaivalyam does not mean merging in the Lord physically. Whatever the devotee says, the Lord will say the same. Whatever the devotee wishes the Lord wishes the same. This is vice-versa also. Such oneness is called Kaivalyam.
We have to get the feeling for it and in the moment I don't get it, so I copied the whole text, probably you understand it better.
It must be a Hare Krishna devotee who is explaining it that way and it gives a feeling a first impression of it and more is also not needed, the real meaning we get anyhow only by insights and as Swami said, he is the insight and the following step, when we get to one insight, the following step it already the next one and that is how consciousness expands and we get also to the ultimate knowledge about Brahman.
The Hare Krishnas are very much living that state of simple devotion to the Lord as it is seen in the gopis and that gives an idea about it. It is not what we imagine it to be and not what it really is and after all it looks simple, but the practice is not at all that simple. We always have to discriminate between right knowledge, wrong knowledge, what we imagine it is and what we have stored in memory what is often just based on sense-knowledge anyhow and that cannot be right knowledge ever when it is about the divine Atma. It is only based on the senses and impressions in the mind and finally we have sleep, that is a dull mind state, it is unaware of what is going on around us, it is not only sleep state, it is also sleep in thoughts and in the waking state, we are just not awake to see what is going on around us.
Everything what we think about the divine and we have understood what is not based on the reality of 'I am that' is imagination only and projection of the mind.
It must be a Hare Krishna devotee who is explaining it that way and it gives a feeling a first impression of it and more is also not needed, the real meaning we get anyhow only by insights and as Swami said, he is the insight and the following step, when we get to one insight, the following step it already the next one and that is how consciousness expands and we get also to the ultimate knowledge about Brahman.
The Hare Krishnas are very much living that state of simple devotion to the Lord as it is seen in the gopis and that gives an idea about it. It is not what we imagine it to be and not what it really is and after all it looks simple, but the practice is not at all that simple. We always have to discriminate between right knowledge, wrong knowledge, what we imagine it is and what we have stored in memory what is often just based on sense-knowledge anyhow and that cannot be right knowledge ever when it is about the divine Atma. It is only based on the senses and impressions in the mind and finally we have sleep, that is a dull mind state, it is unaware of what is going on around us, it is not only sleep state, it is also sleep in thoughts and in the waking state, we are just not awake to see what is going on around us.
Everything what we think about the divine and we have understood what is not based on the reality of 'I am that' is imagination only and projection of the mind.
The path of devotion results also in attainment of ultimate knowledge (Brahma-jnana).
And we will get on the path of devotion also the ultimate knowledge about Brahman.
Even if the devotee does not crave it, the Lord Himself vouchsafes it to the devotee.
Swami's message is the Atmic principle, it is connected to meditation as well as the meaning of the mantra Soham is the 'I am that' and it is the 'tat tvam asi', the highest truth of the Veda.
It is explained not only as the ocean, but the bottom of the ocean and there was the man coming in our dream and it was the ocean floor and there was someone and he said, 'help us'.
It is explained not only as the ocean, but the bottom of the ocean and there was the man coming in our dream and it was the ocean floor and there was someone and he said, 'help us'.
That is how we get aware that we are the same 'I am that', it tells us also what to do.
What is the 'I am that' for us? What do we understand and what not? Is it clear or is it not clear?
If it is not clear, how do we understand the message of Swami and the divine?
We have to analyze it. There are five states, 'right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, memory and sleep'. If we look at our understanding of the Lord, is it based on the message of Swami, the 'I am that', do we understand it?
Is it right knowledge or is it based on imagination or memory and is it therefore wrong knowledge, what is the difference between right and wrong knowledge?
If we know or think we know we also should be able to analyse it and get to the insight of the 'I am that', but if we don't know, we have to work on it and that is why he said in the dream, 'help us'. It is all done by him only, he is the man who comes in our dreams to awake us and the way he said it in the interview when he gave three answers and three different meaning he said actually everything, in his answer is not only the right insights, but also the highest wisdom, but if we don't listen to his words, there is no way we can get aware of it.
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