 Ponder on a river merging in the ocean. The waters of the ocean rise up as vapour when warmed by the Sun and form clouds, which come down as drops of rain. Each drop has inside it the yearning to return to the ocean from which it has been exiled. But, the feeling of individuality overcomes the yearning. The raindrops accumulate and flow as brooks and streams which swell into tributaries of rivers, flooding the plains. At last, the river merges into the ocean and loses its name, form and attributes. In spite of all modifications undergone in the journey from ocean to ocean, water remains as water in vapour, cloud, rain and river. Names, forms and qualities do change but the core remains unchanged. Man too emerges from the ocean of Divinity and his destiny is to merge in it. This is the Truth. This is the Reality. That Thou Art. Be firm in that faith. |
Even if we use quotes of Swami and we talk about his words, as soon as we speak that are our words as well. We are the same or we are not, but we cannot speak Swami's words without using our own words.
But we use his words, we know we use his words and not our words, because I had no words for it, he made me see it, therefore, that are his words and not mine, it just sounds like my words, because we are his instruments.
But we know it is the right thing to do using his words and why, because he is the Atma, in using his words, we get the insights and he is as well the following step and the answer to the insights.
He is the Atma, he is the ocean, we are the waves. He is the doer, we are the instruments, he is the knower, we are the instruments. When we use his words, we begin to understand oneness, because he is repeating it on and on, and that are his words, do you think we would talk about oneness without Swami's words?
He is telling us what to do? Ponder over it. We imagine a river merging in the ocean, we see the river merging in the ocean. Here in New York that is easy, because we are at the ocean.
The waters of the ocean rise up as vapour when warmed by the Sun and form clouds, which come down as drops of rain. Each drop has inside it the yearning to return to the ocean from which it has been exiled. But, the feeling of individuality overcomes the yearning. The raindrops accumulate and flow as brooks and streams which swell into tributaries of rivers, flooding the plains.
We can ponder as well over that picture Baba is painting.
At last, the river merges into the ocean and loses its name, form and attributes.
That are Swami's words, not our words. What is he telling us? The river merges in the sea and has no more name and form and no more attributes. He is nothing anymore or he is God … and what is the difference? Do we know? If we merge with silence and there is no more name and form and attributes, what is left is only silence, isn't it and is that nothing or is it God? Or is it both, or what else can we ask? How do we answer, we go back to Swami's words. He is the answer.
In spite of all modifications undergone in the journey from ocean to ocean, water remains as water in vapour, cloud, rain and river.
There is a journey Swami is talking about and the modification in that journey. The water was transformed into vapor, cloud, rain and river. That is what Swami tells, not our interpretation of it and just leaving the sentence as it is, to not change it, what good is that for when it is about thinking it over? We can leave it as it is and still think it over. We really get some such response, that we shouldn't change his words and therefore, not think it over, funny isn't it? Not that funny.
But why is he telling us that? We have different types of water, he is taking about name and forms. Swami tells us that we can reduce everything in creation to five basic qualities: form, name, sathva, rajas, tamas.
If he is telling us in the ocean, we have no form and no name and no attributes, what has happened, do we still have those five qualities? No, we don't. That is just the point, it is not anymore relative matter. What does remain that he points out in the next sentence.
Names, forms and qualities do change but the core remains unchanged.
He tells us we can reduce everything in the relative realm, in creation into five basic things. We have form, name and attributes, we know the attributes are sathva, rajas and tamas. We know because we have listened to him and he said it before that is why we know, we have learnt it if someone didn't learn it, and instead of telling that he doesn't know, he tells we are interpreting it, because he didn't hear Swami talk about the basic qualities in creation.
If we take a basic example like that, Swami tells that we can reduce the creation and everything created into five basic qualities: form, name, sathva, rajas and tamas.
Names, forms and qualities do change but the core remains unchanged.
The river merged with the ocean, names, forms and attributes do change, but the water, the core, remains unchanged.
What is Swami's conclusion? We, man, emerges from the ocean of light, divinity, love, just to use other words for divinity and the destiny of man is to merge back into it.
Man too emerges from the ocean of Divinity and his destiny is to merge in it. This is the Truth. This is the Reality. That Thou Art. Be firm in that faith.
This we can understand or not? And if not, why can we not understand it? Because we don't see it in our own life, that is what Swami tells, if we don't see it in our own life, we cannot understand it.
We emerge from the ocean and our destiny is to merge back in it. That are his words.
How is the ocean described, the river loses form, name and the attributes, the three Gunas, that we know from before, the study we did yesterday that the attributes are sathva, rajas, tamas.
That would be a problem, because they don't know the Gunas.
Why do we know what the attributes are? We think it over. We listen to Swami's words and we think it over, therefore, we know. He said it. If they would have listened, they would know it as well, they were just sleeping in that lesson and they go on dreaming, they don't learn, they don't absorb the wisdom.
Now we know and if we absorb and learn the lesson, we know tomorrow as well that Swami is telling us merging in the river means no more form, name and attributes, the physical frame is gone.
That is how we know we get to a right and not a wrong conclusion and what about all those doubts coming up in the mind of people when we talk with a lot of people?
This is the Truth. This is the Reality. That Thou Art. Be firm in that faith.
What is truth? That is the truth, from the ocean to ocean, from the I to I. We are not the body and not the mind, we are the ocean or a wave in the ocean, we are attached to our body and mind and therefore, we are not aware that we belong to the ocean.
Truth and right action, Sathya and Dharma = Shanti, peace. That is the truth and that is Veda.
That is the truth. What is right action? Going inside, we don't find the ocean outside, it is inside, outside is name, form and attributes, it is in everything. Swami uses the example of vapor, cloud, rain, river and usually as well the waves.
They are the relative reality and outside, they all have form, name and attributes, in the ocean as he is telling us here, when the river, with name, form and attributes, merges with the ocean, it has no more form, name and attributes, it is one with the ocean, it is the ocean, it is inside.
In spite of all modifications undergone in the journey from ocean to ocean, water remains as water in vapour, cloud, rain and river.
That is the truth and that is the reality. It is what we live in the reality and it is our destiny to merge with the ocean.
There is no difference, we are the same 'I' and that is in the next sentence.
This is the Truth. This is the Reality. That Thou Art. Be firm in that faith.
Is it difficult to understand?
Here a text from the Sivanda ashram about That Thou Art. I just googled it to get a different approach than ours. I have the same issue with that 'thou' I always wonder again what it means exactly, the 'I am that' is basically the same, but we have experienced the 'I am that' and the question what the difference is when Swami tells 'That Thou Art'. In the air above him was 'I am that' not 'That Thou Art' and the question is, why not? Why was it 'I am that' if we always talk about the 'Thou Art That'? But one thing is clear, it is all about oneness.
It is the highest, we can see it in the following text, Thou is the ocean, no name, no form, no attributes, they dissolved in the ocean. Thou is the ocean and we merge with it and are one with it. We are as well the ocean, we have yet still a form, name and attributes, we are the waves.
It is the essence of his teaching, Thou Art That is the basic divine principle. We are the ocean. 'I am that' is the individual river getting aware in merging with the ocean as we are all the same 'I am that' that we are in fact the ocean.
There is not difference, we can meditate with Soham or with the self, we always get back to the self, people sing, the sing in the same self, even if every form and name has different attributes, we go back to the same self, it is the divine reality of the ocean, we all merge in it and that we can experience when we sing, we merge with all the singer in the same self and it is the divine love for the one divine God we praise in singing, but it is for all the same self, there is only one.
This is the Truth. This is the Reality. That Thou Art. Be firm in that faith.
That is the truth and we should be firm in that faith.
Understanding - Thou Art That
When the Upanishads address you and declare: 'Thou art That,' you should be very clear in your mind what the term 'Thou' implies. Then alone, when this is grasped with clarity and subtle receptivity, can you truly and immediately understand what 'That' connotes and how this relationship of oneness is possible. If you think that by the term 'Thou' the Upanishads mean you who are listening with your ears and trying to understand with your mind and grasp with your intellect, then the very purpose of the declaration is thwarted. If to you the term 'Thou' still seems to mean a physical entity, that means that you are still identifying yourself with the body, mind and intellect. As long as you are still in that state of understanding yourself, the Upanishads have failed in their mission, for they are not referring to this thou.
When the Upanishads say 'Thou,' they are not using human language but are trying to convey a divine experience. They are neither using Sanskrit, English, Hindi nor any other language. They are declaring an experience that is imponderable, beyond the knowing of the mind or the grasping of the intelligence, "whence all speech turns back with the mind, not reaching It." So, if instead of trying to understand the term 'Thou' upon that level-where mind and speech cannot enter and they came back unable to comprehend It-and you persist in taking it to mean a physical and psychological level, then the inner implication of 'Thou' has not yet dawned upon you. They are not saying that 'Mr. So and So' is Brahman. That is an absurdity.
Therefore, you first have to understand what this 'Thou' is that they are referring to when they declare that 'Thou art That.' They are not referring to the you that is seen, the you with name and form. They are referring to the unseen You. They are not referring to anything whatsoever that is seen; they are referring to YSou as the hidden, unknown seer of all thing seen, the knower of all things known. In that dimension, Thou, the hidden seer of all things seen, art That, that which alone prevails. That verily is your source, your alpha and omega-You, the unseen You, who may know the world, but the world can never know You. Even your father and mother cannot know You unless they themselves have already understood the true meaning of 'Thou Art That.' There is a need for long study, the need of sitting at the feet of a knower of Brahman and listening to what he has to say about Brahman, about maya, about yourself and about your relationships. You must listen, reflect and meditate. They say Rome was not built in a day. God is not understood even in one lifetime, what to speak of a day. Yet they say He can be realised within a twinkling of an eye. How can we reconcile these statements?
If a dry match is struck against a rough surface it will immediately burst into flame, but you cannot do that with a toothpick or a cake of soap. Consider the amount of work and the number of steps that go into the manufacture of a match head. Thus, when the interior of a seeker is ready, fully prepared through years of study, listening to the truth and pondering over what has been studied, ultimately when the Upanishads declare to you 'That art That,' you know perfectly well what is implied, what is meant by 'Thou.' "I am the unchanging fourth state of consciousness, calmly witnessing the ever-recurring cycle of waking dreaming and sleep. I am that I am! Awareness is my name." It is this meaning that the Upanishads are trying to address. They say that it is the subtlest of all subtle things. You must make your consciousness attain this subtlety. If it is still involved in dualities, in likes and dislikes, joy and grief, and identification with the body, how can that level be attained?
One sage said that grasping this truth is like chewing on steel peanuts and digesting them. It is not a little thing. There is a need for humility, for clarity of thought, for clearly understanding what this truth is and where you stand. Then humbly, with patience, diligence and fortitude try to move towards it and keep on moving. Make your life this slow movement, never allowing anything to divert you. This is sadhana, this is spiritual life, this is yoga, this is abhyasa (practice), this is meditation-dwelling on it, contemplating on it all twenty-four hours of the day. Meditation is throughout the day and night, even when you are working or serving or in a crowd. If the meditation stops, your sadhana has stopped, and your progress has stopped.
You may be alone inside your meditation room, but in thought you may be in the middle of the world. Therefore, this is not play; it is not an ordinary thing. It requires humility and a clear understanding of your real identity. Then a positing of the question of 'Thou' is not ridiculous. Let us fully understand. Let us first assess our present state and see where we are. Then let us do all that is needful to reach where we ought to be if we want to understand Reality, if we want to grasp the Truth.
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